Three Times the Fear
by Wongster
Summary: Follow the plight of 3 young teenagers as they attempt to survive the city they once called home. Fighting monstrous creations and battling with their inner fears & emotions, what happens when they uncover a devious plot? COMPLETED! Please R&R!
1. Caught OffGuard

Title : Three Times the Fear

Author : Wongster

Summary : Follow the plight of 3 young teenagers as they attempt to survive the city they once called home. They will not only encounter monstrous creations, but also battle with their inner fears & emotions. But what happens when they uncover a devious plot?

Author's note: Hi all! This is my very 1st fanfic, so I would really appreciate it if you could review it and update me on areas of improvement. Another word, I plan on making a continuation after this fanfic, andpossibly go on to a trilogy.

Oh, and I do NOT own Resident Evil or any of its characters! This fanfic is written to please all you fans out there!

Chapter 1 : Caught Off-guard

Julian Lias scribbled down the last line to his Chemistry homework, wanting to get the torture over as soon as possible. After the last set of numbers were down in ink, he slammed his pen down and leaned back on his chair, sighing heavily. Shortly after, a night breeze blew through the open window, causing him to shiver involuntarily as he got up and walked towards it, peering out into the empty streets. 3 hours ago, he had been walking down 5th Avenue to get back home, and didn't like how devoid of life the streets were, for never before had he seen Raccoon City fully asleep by 9.30pm.

The news did little to ease his growing worries. There were reports that a number of people were getting sick with a mysterious illness, and residents had been advised to remain indoors. Julian didn't care, though. He had a busy lifestyle-- living by himself at an age of 18, not to mention having to put up with college life, every single minute of his time felt like hours as he struggled to balance between work, play, and his family who were in New York. His senses were on full alert when he was walking down the streets, every single movement in the shadows would draw his gaze towards it, pushing Julian to increase his pace. Save for the occasional rats scurrying about in the trash, and the extremely rare joggers whom he had waved to, the silence which persevered was very unerving. Stray pieces of newspaper flitting about in the breeze, along with the dark sky overhead, contributed even more to the freakishly haunting atmosphere.

Julian shuddered again, before reaching out and closing the window. He turned and headed to the shelves, and started to flip through the letters he had received for that day, since there wasn't any time to look through them in the morning.

_Letter from Mum, Sis, college yet again... Huh, still no letters from him... _Julian frowned further, his worries coming back to him in full force.

"Him", was referring to Julian's elder cousin, Leo Linz. Leo had been given a position in the multi-billion dollar company, Umbrella, or more specifically, White Umbrella, the viral research sector. This was something that he had always wanted, so at an age of 25, Leo's future certainly seemed bright. However, his job required him to work in another country. Still, long distances didn't prevent the 2 close cousins from remaining in contact with each other. But recently, Leo's letters stopped coming in, and Julian had started to worry as to what was wrong. He always told himself that Leo's work must have caught up to him, but deep inside, his instincts were telling him otherwise. He clutched at the dogtag around his neck. On it was written Leo's full name. Leo had given it to him on the day he left Raccoon City, said that at least it would help Julian to remember him, and since then, Julian had never taken it off, whether he went to sleep, took a bath, or anything of that sort, the dogtag remained around his neck. By now, even the markings of the chain could be seem clearly on his skin, but Julian didn't seem to mind. He cared more about his cousin than about his cousin's gift.

_No point worrying now, better get some sleep first... _With that thought in mind, he dropped the letters back onto the shelf, plopped himself onto his bed, and was asleep almost instantly.

But his sleep was interrupted by a crashing sound coming from outside, followed by several screamings. He sat up straight and rubbed his sleepy eyes, wondering what the hell was going on. Just then, a constant banging sound ensued from the front door. Julian stumbled his way downstairs, thinking it was probably someone who wanted to look for help.

_An accident in the middle of the night, tell me about it. Damn, this guy is impatient! _The banging on his door continued, and seemed to be getting more violent.

"Alright I'm coming! What the heck is going on out there!" Julian yelled, opening the door-

only to fall backwards as someone threw himself onto Julian. Luckily, Julian's good reflexes enabled him to hold the person upwards, and almost puked inside. Whoever it was who flung himself not Julian, had half his face torn off, revealing his skull as well as an empty socket. His skin, as Julian was pushing it away, felt cold, dry and so very squishy. His breath was hot and smelled like shit as he attempted to grasp at Julian's throat, mouth opening and closing rapidly.

"Get off me, damn it!" Julian yelled, but the person paid no attention as he moaned and tried to lean in further.

_Shit man, this guy is strong!_ Julian mustered his strength from his adrenaline rush, and managed to push it further upwards. Then, bringing his right knee to its chest, Julian kicked the person off. He, or IT, fell backwards with a 'thud', but by the time Julian had scrambled backwards and recovered, it had already stood up and began making his way towards him. Julian's gaze darted around the room, looking for any weapon of sorts, and his eyes narrowed on the wooden chairs set around the table.

_Highly doubt it would do much, but if i can break it..._

Wasting no time, Julian firmly grabbed onto the chair, hefted it up, and swung it downwards with full force, crashing it down onto the person's head. It once again stumbled and fell backwards, but this time Julian wasted no time. He fumbled through the wreckage, and finally held up the broken leg of the chair he just broke. He then dashed forward, and plunged it deep through the person's forehead. Blackish blood sprayed onto the stone steps as an audible squishing sound was heard before it fell back down, completely motionless.

Julian backed away from the body, grimacing slightly at the sight of its bloody and ragged appearence. The clothes were all soaked red with blood, and a big hole was seen in its stomach, as if it had been ripped open with force. The skin was already peeling and flaking off. As for the face, well, Julian had already seen it up close and personal, so there wasn't much need to get into the details.

"That's...a zombie..." Julian stammered to himself. Being a fan of late night horrow flicks, it was no doubt that the corpse which lay in front of him is a zombie. Mindless, decaying, smelling like shit, desperate for human flesh. It all fit the description. Julian's shoulders were still throbbing from the zombie's firm grasp, but there were no scratches whatsoever, and he was relieved for that.

A crunching sound came from behind his house, a twig being snapped, only signifying that there were more of those zombies closing on him. Julian hastily put on his shoes, and opened the bottom drawer to reveal a 9mm Beretta handgun. He had kept it just in case some weirdos decided it would be fun to break into his house with guns flailing. But because of that, he didn't keep any extra clips. All he had was another box of bullets, and that gave him a total of 25 shots, with 15 already inside the gun. Too bad he didn't use it on the zombie he had narrowly escaped from...

_But hey, saving ammo is good right? If I'm lucky, this baby here would help take me through 25 of these things. Anyway, I better go find Andrew and Desmond._

Andrew Jacobs and Desmond Watt, Julian's 2 best friends. They had always been through thick and thin together, and had remained best friends for as long as anyone could remember. And now, the situation certainly called for some serious action. With the 3 of them together, nothing could go wrong.

Julian quickly changed into a cyan coloured shirt with bermudas. Not ideal for such situations, but it's better than running around in plain sleeping clothes. He then darted over the corpse and out the door. In an instant, he was dumbstruck by the chaos which lay in front of him. The streets were littered with bodies, some already getting up, and wrecked cars. The crash he had heard earlier most likely came from the car which was smashed into the lambpost in front of his house. 3 of those zombies were already feasting on the driver's dead body. In the distance, he could see people running from the zombies screaming, most of them still dressed in their sleeping clothes and nightgowns. One of them broke free from a zombie's grasp, only to stumble into a group of 4 of them, and Julian tore his gaze away as her screaming were drowned out by moans and her own gurgling throat. Gathering his courage, he ran out his gates and turned right, as 2 additional zombies stumbled out of the shadows of his garden. The 3 zombies at the wrecked car didn't even notice him before he was far across the street. Andrew's house was quite a distance away, but if he paced himself, he would be there in no time. He only hoped that Andrew hadn't become one of those things.

_He won't, he's stronger than that... _That mere thought comforted him as he broke into a constant jog. The empty, dusty streets he had seen before, was now transformed into a bloody feast. Zombies were shuffling their way around, several were munching down on bodies. Julian felt sorry for them, but now he couldn't do anything but run, before the zombies ganged up on him. Sure, he would love to help them, but they were strangers after all, His first priority was to find his friends.

By the time he had reached the lsat corner before he would see Andrew's house, he had already took out 7 zombies, and was left with 18 shots. He stepped on the crawling zombie's head with a loud, sickening squashing sound, and turned the corner. Only to see Andrew standing outside his house and bashing the head of a zombie in with an iron pipe. A zombie got up from behind Andrew, unknown to him, and was almost within lunging distance as Julian took aim and fired. Andrew turned around to see the zombie's lifeless body crumple to the ground with a sigh, and then glanced towards Julian. Dressed in a simple red T-shirt, with a beach coloured pants to top it all of, his appearence contrasted slightly with the background.

"Hey! You missed one!" Julian yelled, with pride, before running towards Andrew.

"Boy am I glad to see you!" Andrew commented, breathing normally.

"Same here. I assumed from the looks of things, that you just got up right?" Julian looked at Andrew thoroughly, noticing that his hair was all messed up and his clothes were creased.

"Yeah, I did."

"Heavy-sleeper... Anyway, we have to find Desmond. He's the one with the heavy arsenal." True enough, they both knew that Desmond kept a gunsafe in his basement. 'In case of emergencies' he always said, the current situation was more than enough for be considered as an 'emergency'.

Lucky for them, Desmond's house wasn't very far away, and after another 5 minutes of running, they were closely enough to see Desmond's house, as well as the many corpses of zombies littering the front lawn. That only proved that Desmond was still alive. Julian was sweating and panting heavily, but he pushed his aches aside as Andrew and him dashed towards Desmond's front door.

"Desmond! Desmond it's us, open up!" Andrew rapped on the door, and it creaked open, revealing a tall, six-foot-seven man in a white singlet and blue jeans. Muscles bulged out from his arms and a tattoo of a sword was seen on his right arm. His hair was in a slight mess but looked better than Andrew's.

"Oh it's you guys. Hey Des, your friends are here!" Ashton called out. Steady footsteps were heard as Desmond came running to the front door in his favourite black uncollared T-shirt and greyish three-quarters. As always, his hair was spiked up. Apparently, Desmond still had time to do his hair, even in the gravest of situations.

"Thank goodness you guys came. Come on, get in before those things see you." Desmond pulled Julian and Andrew in before slamming the door and locking it. It was dark inside the living room, except for the lamp on the dining table. The light illuminated a bunch of stuff which, to Julian, seemed to gleam with glory. 3 Berettas lay side-by-side, with an extra clip for each of them. 4 boxes, all labelled as '9mms', rested beside the handguns. At the side, lay a single Remington shotgun, with 2 boxes of rounds for it. Andrew almost gagged at the sight of the firearms.

"Gee man, you preparing for war or what!" Andrew exclaimed, staring idly at the shotgun.

"Hah, sort of. We emptied out the gunsafe, so what you're looking at is what we have for now." Desmond explained, still looking quite tired.

"Seems like enough to me." Julian said, and began reloading his own handgun. He transferred the bullets such that he had 20 spare bullets, making it a total of 35 shots. To keep the extra bullets, he had to empty out his pockets, but it didn't seem to matter anyway. His handphone was dead, and now is a bad time to be worrying about monetary objects.

"So do you guys know anything about what is going on?" Ashton asked.

"We were hoping you would know..." came Andrew's reply.

They had been holding out in Desmond's house for an hour now. Julian knew that sooner or later, they would have to leave the sanctity of the house and search for another location to hold out, since it's pointless to remain in one location if help didn't seem to come.

"Damn, radio still doesn't work. Stupid piece of junk...!" Desmond was complaining from the table. After fumbling with a few switches, he had gotten nothing but static, and now the radio lay on the table a good distance away from Desmond, who had thrust it aside out of anger. Julian was just about to tell him to calm down, when his handphone started ringing.

Everyone jumped 5 centimetres into the air as the handphone's sudden raping against the oak table filled the air. Desmond glanced at Ashton, who stared at Andrew, who merely looked towards Julian, who also had a look of confusion on his face.

"It was dead, it can't possibly..."

"Well it's not dead _now._ Hurry and answer it!" Ashton gestured impatiently towards the still ringing phone.

Julian grunted to himself before flipping the handphone open and switching it to loudspeaker. He placed it in the middle of the table for everyone to listen.

"Um...Hello?"

"...Julian! Oh thank goodness you're alright!"

"...Dad?"


	2. Decisions, Decisions

Author's Note : Sorry, forgot to say one more thing. "X-------X-------X" stands for a change in events.

Chapter 2 : Decisions, Decisions.

Steven Lias darted down another corridor, the white, stained lab coat flapping against his legs. The sound of his leather shoes rapping against the flooring echoed around, giving him a foreboding feeling of being caged in, which was sort of true, given the current circumstances. Being a regular scientist here, he would appear to be used to the surroundings. But this was not the case, because now the dull metallic colour of the walls seemed even more eerie in the endless corridors. Sliding doors lay on both sides of the corridor, but he didn't have time to figure out which one would lead him to the exit. Steady footsteps was still heard behind him, heavy footsteps, and it would close on him in no time. Steven yanked open a door which lead to a store room, leaped inside, and close it as quietly as he dared. Pressing his ear against the door, panting, he listened for any sounds outside. Nothing. Steven heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

_Shit, this can't be happening. How could Philip... Julian! I have to contact Julian! _Steven kicked himself mentally for not realizing that earlier. Still, it's hard to remember many things when you're being chased by an unknown monster.

He took out his personal handphone. When he began working for Umbrella, he had secretly installed an extra component in both Julian's and his handphones, which would allow them both to remain in contact even when the line seemed dead. Of course, Julian had no idea that his handphone came with an unwanted package, so Steven expected him to be supremly surprised when he makes the call. He hastily dialled in the appropiate numbers with trembling fingers, sweat sliding down his face, and listened for the dial tone. It rang once...twice...three times...

_Come on Julian. Of all times, please answer the phone NOW..._

_"Um...Hello?" _Julian's voice came floating out of the phone, easing Steven's tension slightly. He was about to reply when he thought he heard another sound outside. Clasping the mouthset of the phone shut, he listened again, then speaking into the phone when there were, once again, no sounds outside.

"Julian! Oh thank goodness you're alright!"

_"...Dad?"_ Julian's voice sounded as confused as Steven predicted. _"How did you..."_

"No time for any questions," Steven whispered into the phone. "you need to get out of town. Something terrible happened here, there was a spill and now... I'll meet you on Highway 21. Try to not get bitten or scratched, the virus spreads by contact. I suggest you bet-"

Whatever Steven wanted to suggest was cut short as he flew all the way into the back of the room when the door he was leaning on suddenly crashed open. He landed heavily on his head, making his vision blurry as if the whole world was spinning. But it was clear enough for him to see the monster that had been stalking him, standing in the broken doorway, staring at him. His phone lay right in front of it, and he could still hear Julian's voice calling him. All Steven could say was a weak "No..." before the monster took a step into the room, and instantly crushed his phone, and whatever hope Steven had. He couldn't think of anything else but Julian, before blacking out.

**X-------X-------X**

Julian stared at the phone, horrified, as the crashing sounds filled the living room.

"Dad, what happened! Dad, are you there?" Julian's voice was in a frantic panic, expected since it was his father on the other line.

_"No..." _That was all Julian heard before the line went into static. Everyone else stared at Julian as if they expected him to explode with rage, but Julian only said a single sentence which only he was determined to do.

"I...I have to go to my father..." He stammered.

"Julian are you crazy! The only lab in Raccoon City lies smack in the middle. You'll be walking straight into an undead legion! I don't know, but I think we should get out of the city while we still can..." Ashton's voice was also high with panic, partially because he didn't like shooting at things, or people for that matter.

"Then go, I'm not asking you to follow me. I... I can go by myself..." Julian's head was low, and he stared at the floor, images of what could possibly happen to his father filled his mind. He shook them out before they could make him scream out loud.

"That is completely out of the question! You won't survive 15 minutes without sustaining injuries! I think Ashton is right abou-" Desmond started, before they all jumped at Julian's shout.

"I CAN'T JUST LEAVE MY FATHER BEHIND!" Julian's chest heaved in and out as his face was red with rage. The other 3 simply stared dumbstruck at the sudden outburst. "S-sorry, I just..."

"I'll go with you." Andrew said, much to the surprise of Julian. "Don't forget, we already promised to go through thick and thin together, right Desmond?"

"sigh Yeah, guess I forgot about that. Sorry... Well, at least now we get some action!" Desmond grinned.

Everyone then looked at Ashton, who felt as if he was being sucked into a hellhole.

"Ah well, if you can't fight em', join em'. Guess i'll be tagging alone with you guys..." Ashton said, not believing the words coming out of his mouth. "Besides, I'm the only one who can drive a car!"

"Thanks guys... But you all should know that you can get killed if you follow me." The thoughts of seeing his best friends die, or anyone else dieing, would forever be grafted into his mind if it were to happen.

"Course we do, but that's the whole point. If we were gonna die, we will experience some action before we do!" Andrew said, holding a thumbs-up.

_Ha... Looks like you did get yourself some really good friends Julian..._

"Alright then, get the car, we're moving out."

Desmond and Ashton each took a handgun, an extra clip, and a box of bullets. Andrew had the shotgun, something which he always loved to hold and 'pump', and that made him the "heavy artillery" of the group. The last box of 9mm bullets would be used as a reserve. The car was in Ashton's house, however, so the group proceeded to sneak across without attracting much attention. With that, they made it to Ashton's garage by sticking to the shadows and walking on their toes. The car Ashton had was a typical Toyota Corola-- not good in terms of speed, but it was bulky enough to run zombies over. Julian got into the passenger seat, with Desmond and Andrew in the back seats. After getting am "Ok" from everyone, Ashton started up the engine, revved it a bit, and crashed through the garage door out into the streets, already crushing 2 zombies in the process.

The car rolled past Arklay Road. Julian gazed out into the streets, fully taking in the destruction and havoc which lay in front of them. He still couldn't believe that all this happened between the time he went to sleep, and the time when the zombie had knocked on his door, which was a mere 2 hours. Now it was already approaching 5 in the morning. Andrew suggested that they stock up on some supplies and look for somewhere to rest. Julian decided against it, wanting to get to his father as soon as possible, but after seeing their tired faces, as well as an immensely big yawn from Ashton, he gave in, realizing that it'd be better to battle any zombies when on full alert, and not with half-closed eyes. Sparks Minimart seemed like a good place. It had nice reinforced shutters, plus you can practically get anything you wanted at that place.

_Does that include a teleporting device to transport me to the lab? Huh, don't kid yourself Julian..._

They swerved between wreckages and could finally see the minimart. Ashton parked the car right in front of the sidedoor for easy escape. It was later decided that Ashton and Andrew would stay behind in the car just in case they had to bail, while Julian and Desmond went in to clear the place out. Julian had taken up shooting classes in college, and he knew that Desmond got his experience from the arcade games. It was a question of whether Desmond could treat a live handgun as being the same as a plastic copy.

"You know the drill right? Shoot anything that moves but doesn't speak. We'll sweep the place." Julian pointed out, and was surprised at his own leadership skills.

Desmond nodded, and Julian creaked open the sidedoor. Desmond went in first, handgun held in front of him, followed by Julian who took the left. Inside, it wasn't as messed up as Julian thought it would be, though some of the shelves were overturned. Other than that, most of the minimart's contents were intact-- countless packets of Twisties, chips, Granola Bars, as well as bottles of water and various soft drinks. There would be time to appreciate and feast on the snacks, but now ensuring that their camping place was secured was of the highest importance. Julian cautiously approached and peered between the shelves for any crawling zombies, and saw Desmond do the same around the counter area. A minute was all they needed before they sweeped across the room. Julian was about to turn and walk towards Desmond when he kicked something which rolled across the floor. He picked it up and held it in the light. The object appeared cylindrical in shape, and was completely black in colour, not to mention extremely smooth as well. Desmond also looked at it with interest, then the answer hit Julian.

"What the heck is a silencer doing here?" he asked to noone in particular.

"Must've have been dropped by others when they came here." Desmond rubbed his chin, probably thinking the same thing.

"But if there were people here, and they already bailed, that could only mean..." Julian's eyes widened, and could see the same look in Desmond's face.

As if on cue, a single 'thump' sound was heard in the ceiling, coming from the 2nd floor. Julian looked at Desmond, who simply nodded, and they approached the door leading to the stairs. Desmond had managed to find a couple of torchlights during their sweep, and now they held it up beside their handguns for easy aiming. Slowly, they made their way up, with each creaking step sounding like a bomb being dropped in the still night. Julian was in front, with the silencer already attached to his gun, and Desmond brought up the rear. At the top of the stairs were 2 doors. The sound they had heard earlier did not repeat itself, making their search that much harder. Julian pointed to the right door first, before moving into place beside it. Desmond turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, instantly raising his handgun as soon as his hand left the doorknob. The light illuminated a total mess. Mattresses and pillows lay scattered on the ground, along with some chairs and newspapers. But the most obvious thing the light pointed out was the man standing beside the cupboard, facing the wall. He appeared to be fine, no traces of blood were seen on his clothes.

"Um...sir? Are you alright?" Julian said, handgun still pointed at the man. He turned, and immediately Julian felt his heart drop. The man's eyes were blank, cloudy with some kind of white emulsion, had a face completely white and expressionless. He opened his mouth and let a low moan, before stretching his hands out and stumbled his way towards them. Desmond looked at Julian and nodded.

"I'm...sorry..." Julian blurted out, before pulling the trigger. There was a muffled sound, hidden by the sound of the man's body hitting the ground, a bullethole in his forehead. The wall behind was instantly coloured with red and black with blood, accompanied by a sudden foul stench that Julian hadn't noticed before. He sighed and turned, walking towards the other door. Further inspection showed the room devoid of anything. They went back downstairs to give Ashton and Andrew the 'clear signal'.

**X-------X-------X**

_Now how did I get myself into this...?_

Desmond grumbled to himself, firmly holding onto his handgun and cussing non-stop. After they had satisfied their hunger on some snacks, a unanimous vote ended up putting Desmond on guard duty. He gulped down another mouth of water to ease his anger. Sure, he was tired as hell, but why couldn't they just yank down the shutters and they ALL could get a good night's sleep.

_"It's to prevent ourselves from getting surrounded without our knowing, so that we can make a quick escape when we have to." Julian says. "It's for our own good..." He says. If I don't get any sleep soon, I'm gonna shoot them all in THEIR sleep..._

That last line was definitely a joke, but if worse comes to worse, Desmond wouldn't hesitate to kill to catch a few minutes of sleep. He ripped open a packet of cheese-flavoured Twisties and started throwing them into his mouth one by one. Least he could eat as much as wanted to. The other 3 were by now snoozing around the counter. They had brought down some of the pillows from upstairs (unstained ones, of course), but had to make do with the hard flooring since the mattresses would be too big. Nobody wanted to sleep in a room which once contained a zombie, so everyone opted to set up camp downstairs. Munching down on another piece of Twisties, he sure was gonna get cranky in the morning.

_Thump, thump, thump..._

Desmond froze, hand in midair holding a piece of Twisties. The sounds were coming from outside, clear and audible. He slowly put the packet away and took out his handgun. Moving stealthly, he positioned himself at the side of the front door, and crouched in the shadows. He peered outside, and almost felt his jaw hit the ground.

On the road walking towards the right, was an immensely huge person. Or, at least, it had the figure of a person. In the light casted by the streetlamps, Desmond could make out the horribly deformed face of the creature. It had only 1 eye, and it was completely white, no pupils whatsoever. Where its right eye was supposed to be, was nothing but a flab of skin, joined together to the rest of its head by metallic staples. Its mouth was gaping open, its lips totally gone, making it look like it was grinning with 2 rows of white teeth. But what seemed awkward was that it was dressed in a black trenchcoat. Its footsteps sounded as if it weighed a tonne, a steady thumping which almost rocked the ground. In its left hand was a huge rocket launcher, and in its right, a heavy machinegun. Desmond wondered what the heck it was, or even what the heck it was doing with an RPG and a railgun.

_"Sssttaaarsss..." _came the low, deep growl of the creature. The mere sound of it was enough to pierce Desmond's heart throughly. He glanced back and forth between the creature and his 3 roommates. Should he wake them up? Or should he just run out the side-door and bail? What if it came and attacked them? The questions flooded his mind as Desmond struggled to make a sound decision, when the creature suddenly looked in his direction. In an attempt to scramble back into the shadows, Desmond dropped his gun and it clattered to the floor. He was, however, too scared to pick it back up, even though it lay right at his feet.

_Ohshitohshit, notgoodnotgood... _Desmond clamped his eyes shut and prayed. _Pleasedon'tcomehere, pleasedon'tcomehere..._

A few seconds passed, and the creature turned back and continued down the street, its footsteps drumming against Desmond's ears. He heaved a sigh of relief and watched as the creature dissappeared around the corner. He decided he had enough of guard duty, even though it had only been an hour or so since he started, and he snatched an extra pillow, lay down at where he was beside the doors, and fell asleep.

He definitely had something to tell the others in the morning.

A/N : Heh, cookies for all those who knows what Desmond saw!


	3. Unforeseen Circumstances

Chapter 3 : Unforeseen Circumstances

Philip Jacobs tapped his feet impatiently against the metal floor, pacing around the room continuously. He dreaded waiting for someone or something, deemed it a complete waste of his precious time. But he also knew that Steven was a slippery dog, who could easily make it out of harm's way when he wanted to. At this thought, Philip clenched his fists.

_Not this time my dear friend. You won't be able to escape MY creation!_

Ever since Steven had gotten, no, _stolen_, his position as Head Researcher, Philip had begun plotting ways to arise in ranks and at the same time, demote Steven. But his attempt all had been futile, Steven was always on top of things, so Philip could not risk putting his plans to good use. Until now. Philip could not wait till he showed the rest of White Umbrella what he had created, pictured bags of money being thrown to his feet and people cowering down in fear in front of him, his laughter filling the air. With all that, he and his son would not have to live in this shithole anymore.

_That's right. My son. I can use all those money to even BUY him new friends, and not that dog's son. What was his name again? Julian? Ah who gives a damn, he'll probaly suffer the same fate as his father! _

Philip knew that Steven's very soul would break if he watched his own son die. Problem was how was he going to lure Julian here. He then recalled looking through one of the monitors and seeing Steven making a call out to someone. Could be Julian, or could be other people. It would be a risk he was going to take.

Just then, the automatic doors slid open, and in stomped his pet, carrying the unconsious body of Steven Lias. It dumped him unceremoniously onto the floor, then walked off towards the side.

"Ah, thank you so much!" Philip said, looking at his pet. Steven's body started to move, and a painful groan came out of Steven's mouth. "Awake at last, you sleepydog!"

Steven got into a sitting position and looked up, straight into Philip, and Philip could see fear, as well as anger, written all over Steven's face.

This was not the case for Steven, for he saw madness, insanity, and a whole lotta jealousy in Philip's face.

"Philip, why are you doing this?" He murmured, the pain in his head resurfacing once more.

"The answer is simple isn't it? Money, and fame. Not to mention putting you down as well..." Philip said, grinning like a shark.

"What...what do you mean? Are you referring to them promoting me? I didn't ask for it. Hell, I even asked them whether they could promote you as well, but they-" Steven started, pleading with the tone in his voice.

"LIAR! You didn't do any of that, you just wanted to sit back and bath in your own glory!" Philip shouted back, instantly shutting Steven out. "Not anymore. I'm going to enjoy seeing you slowly get eaten away from the inside, won't we my pet?"

Steven glanced towards the monster. Now he had the time to examine it, but Steven wished that he didn't. Standing at 7 feet, the monster's skin was the same colour of the metal walls, dull and grey. Its right arm was horribly mutated, with long, white, 2-foot knives curving out from the end. Its legs and abdomen was thick with muscles, indicating that it could run as fast as hell. When Steven's eyes fell onto the monster's face, he couldn't contain the trembling within. Its face was completely blank, expressionless, its eyes fixed on him. Still, there was something familiar about its face. Steven had the feeling he had seen that same face somewhere before.

"Well, don't you recognise him yet?" Philip said, barking out a laugh.

His fears were confirmed. Steven's eyes widened as the answer hit him as hard as a moving train. "No...Philip, you did... You insane BASTARD!" He yelled, unable to control the anger in him.

Philip was only slightly taken aback by Steven's outburst, but recovered almost instantly. "Heh, won't your son be surprised when he gets here..."

At that sentence, Steven was almost on the verge of tears. "Keep my son out of this... You want me, not him..." His voice was now nothing but a low whisper, his energy all having been drained out through fatigue.

"That's true, but WITH him, I can make you break even further!" And as Philip laughed once more, Steven could only hope.

_Julian, please don't come here. Just...get out of town! _But the other half of him already knew, from the call he half-made earlier, that Julian was on his way here, and there was nothing he could do to stop it...

**X-------X-------X**

"It was like, 8 feet tall, and it was carrying a railgun and an RPG as well!" Desmond rambled on, oblivious to all the blank faces around him. "Plus its face was super deformed, and it said only one sentence which sounded like 'stars'!"

"Uh...yeah. What next? He's my brother?" Ashton replied sarcastically. He then shook his head and gulped down on a bottle of Sprite.

Ever since they woke up, which was around noon, Desmond had been talking non-stop for 10 minutes, despite pissing Julian off for falling asleep so early on guard duty. Turned out Julian had awoken to get a drink at around 7am, and saw Desmond comfortably snoozing in the corner. He couldn't be bothered to wake him up, though, as it still appeared to be safe outside, and also since Desmond was snoring like hell.

"Ah, whatever. As long as whatever you saw doesn't come crashing across our path, I'm fine with it..." Julian said, covering his mouth as he yawned. Desmond's loud snoring, along with Andrew's, didn't exactly contribute to a fruitful slumber. At least it was good enough for him to carry on without falling asleep in the middle of a zombie legion. Speaking of zombie legions...

"Oh yeah, is it just me, or is there unusually few zombies out in the open right now?" Julian asked.

There was a brief moment of silence involving everyone looking at each other. They all peered out through the glass windows out onto the streets. True enough, there were only 3 or 4 zombies loitering around their immediate vicinity, as compared to the dozens they saw before dawn. Furthermore, the zombies that were outside seemed to be completely blind-- they were colliding into lambposts, cars, and even onto each other now and then.

"Apparently, they hate sunlight, AND we can probably use it to our advantage." Ashton concluded.

"Grab your stuff. Think it's better that we leave now while the streets are still empty." Julian pointed out, slinging a bag which contained some packets of food, drinks, and his supply of extra ammo. Ransacking the minimart proved to be worthy after all -- several bags used to store stuff for camping trips were snatched off their shelves by eager hands, plsu they located a first-aid kit underneath the counter, which was now stored in Desmond's bag. His handphone still rested in his right back pocket, in case his father tried to contact him again.

_Provided he's even alive..._

No. Julian shook away the thought and cursed himself for thinking about such a thing. Despite contantly being at work, Steven Lias was still his father, as much as Julian hated him. Now, everything is changing. His father is in danger, and Julian found himself desperate to get to him, something which until now, still surprised him.

They walked out towards the car. A descent amount of smoke still lingered in the air, causing them to cough now and then. Ashton turned back and looked wearily at the minimart.

"Goodbye Sparks, we're gonna miss you..." He murmured, though loud enough for everyone to hear, before getting into the driver's seat. Upon hearing his comment, Julian glanced back at the minimart as well. Having merely spent only several hours within its walls, it shone like a sanctuary in this hellish city. Leaving it was like walking back out into a tornado.

The car rolled down Robinson Road. The scenery was the exact same as last night's, just with more light. Strangely enough, everyone in the vehicle was silent, except for the occasional humming from Ashton. Desmond had his head down, probably catching a quick snooze, whereas Andrew was also looking out the window, his hand covering his mouth in a 'pondering' position. Julian's mind floated back to when Raccoon City was still alive, when his friends and himself spent their days playing video games, checking out comic stalls, and spending nights at each other's houses.

_Why did this shit have to happen. Why now, of all times! Gotta be my damn luck._ Julian thought.

And his thoughts were instantly wiped out when something crashed onto the roof of the car, causing it to buckle inwards. Ashton swerved the wheel, and the car barreled into a lambpost, its side connecting heavily with the metallic post. The impact caused Desmond to slam straight into Andrew, knocking the air out of him, while Julian's head took a good beating. Ashton spoke up almost immediately after the collison.

"What the heck was that? Is everyone al-" He started, and was cut off when a long, pinkish thing shot through the roof, neatly slicing into Ashton's left arm. He gave a yelp before slapping at the elongated object, which looked almost like a tongue. Then, Julian realized that it WAS a tongue, and wasted no time in snatching out his handgun, pointed towards the roof at where he assumed the creature must be, and fired. 5 bursts went out, but Julian felt his eardrum pop when his shots were followed by the resounding 'BOOM!' of a shotgun, which, in a car, was insanely loud. But it proved helpful, for whatever it was on the roof gave a short shriek before collapsing against it, causing the roof of the car to cave in further. Julian rubbed at where his head had knocked against the side, and saw Ashton clutching at his bleeding arm.

"Everyone out, NOW." Ashton commanded, and they were more than happy to follow. Julian literally collapsed out of the car, but his mind went blank as he stared at the creature that had attacked them.

It was vaguely humanoid, its pink-coloured skin looking as if it had melted into the muscles beneath it. Long, white claws decorated its hands and legs where the fingers and toes would be. White, sharp teeth lay neatly in two rows in its mouth, which was still open from the death cry it had made earlier. The worst thing to note about it would be that its brain was fully exposed on its head, but half of it were missing. Turned out, Andrew's lucky shot went right through its head. The last feature to note about the creature was its tongue, which was stained in red at the end, where it had pierced Ashton's arm.

"A word of advice, Andrew," Julian started, rubbing at his ear. "you do NOT fire a shotgun in such an enclosed area!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but would you rather have this thing to kill us!" Andrew retorted, rubbing at his own ear as well.

"I think Julian and I could've taken care of it..." Desmond said from the other side of the car. As expected, he was rubbing his ear too.

"Err, guys? I'm still bleeding here." Ashton's voice came from behind the car, and he was starting to get agitated by the meaningless arguement. Julian took one look at his wound, and made a decision.

"Think we better take some shelter first, the car's history anyway." Julian said, and pointed at the building behind Desmond. It appeared to be some normal office of sorts, probably a company Julian had not heard of.

They piled into the empty lobby of the office. A simple sweep showed it to be relatively safe in terms of their immediate vicinity. Ashton tumbled into a sitting position against the counter, breathing rapidly and still clutching his wound. Desmond immediately got down and snatched out his first aid kit, while Julian and Andrew went to check out the other rooms.

_He's been injured, probably even infected by whatever disease that turned everyone else into zombies. Dammit, hope there's a cure somewhere..._

"Julian. Hey, JULIAN!" Andrew was practically yelling into Julian's ear as he stared off into nothingness. Julian jumped at the sudden shouting and looked at Andrew.

"Sorry, I was just... I think Ashton is infected." Julian lowered his head as he said the last part. He knew that it wouldn't be long before they had to put Ashton down, permanently. Hadn't he seen enough death already? The situation seemed to be getting far worse than it is.

"Don't worry. I'm sure there should be something that can help him." Andrew put one arm onto Julian's shoulder and squeezed slightly, reassuring him. But for what?

"Confident, aren't you? Pray you're right..."

Desmond turned his head slightly when he heard Andrew's voice calling out to Julian. Wanting so desperately to run into the room and see what's going on, he held himself back. Furthermore, there were no gunshots heard, yet, so they must be having a wonderful conversation inside. He looked back at Ashton's wound and dabbed it once more with a cotton wool. Ashton hissed and clenched his fist at the pain, only to recieve a glare from Desmond. The wound, however, didn't look very pleasing. The creature's tongue had sliced all the way through the meat, making as if you could look into the entry point and see whatever lay on the other side of the wound. Good thing it missed the bone by an inch or so, otherwise Ashton wouldn't even need to be worrying about having an arm at all. Something did strike him as odd though -- black veins could be seen branching out from the injury. It looked minor, but Desmond knew, over time the veins would get longer until the disease would flood Ashton's entire system.

Ashton took another look at his arm, and groaned.

"Huh, guess i'm infected, right?" He grunted, tilting his head towards the roof. It caught Desmond offguard, and he hesitated. What could he say to console him? The truth was obvious.

"...Yeah, think so, judging from what we heard from Julian's dad..." Desmond replied, voice filled with sorrow. His neighbour, infected, and probably gonna be dead within a couple of hours, and there was nothing he could do except patch up a pathetic little wound on his arm. Simply thinking about it made Desmond furious at himself.

"Ha. when it really comes to that, you'll take care of it. Right, brudder?" Ashton said, still staring at the roof. Desmond could see a tear sliding down the side of his face, and he too felt like crying.

"No, we won't, coz it will NOT come to that..." came Julian's voice. Desmond whipped around to see Julian and Andrew walking towards them. "There should be a way, there always is. So don't give me any of this 'take care of me when i go zombie' thing!"

"Yes sir!" Ashton joked, and saluted Julian with his uninjured arm. Even though he was obviously teasing him, Ashton could see the determination in Julian's eyes. As expected, since Julian now had to brave this hellish city, get to his father, and look for help for him as well.

**X-------X-------X**

2 hours went by as the group recupriating. Or, at least, until Ashton's wound was sealed enough for him to jog. The car was still smoking from their accident earlier, so running from building to building was their only hope, even if it meant lugging with them their weapons, ammo and food. The empty lobby, like the minimart, started to shine like an angel as Julian looked around. Relatively clean, spacious, plenty of ways to escape an ambush. Someone could very well board up here for some time.

_Unless that person's father is in danger from being eaten alive..._

After they had enough rest, with Desmond doing repeated checkings on Ashton's arm, Julian gave the 'Let's go' signal and pushed open the front doors. the sun was still hanging high in the sky, baking everything its light touched in a scorching heat. Already, Julian could feel himself sweating. Running around in the afternoon certainly was not a good thing. But they had no other choice. At least Ashton was well enough to jog on his own as well. And with that, Julian and Ashton broke out into a slow jog, with Andrew and Desmond bringing up the rear. The roads were still as silent as ever. No zombies walking around, fires having burnt out. It left nothing but an eerie scenery where one would expect something to jump out at them around every corner. Julian laughed at himself in his mind for thinking like a 5-year old. This wasn't a horror movie, this was real life. One false move and down you go into the very depths of a zombie's mouth.

As for Ashton, his condition had started to get worse. Every now and then he would suddenly grip his arm, obviously feeling some sharp pain in his injury. He would also put his hand across his stomach as if he had a stomach ache. Julian noticed this and was getting even more worried.

_The virus is taking effect faster than I thought. Damn, will we have enough time...?_

It wasn't 5 minutes before Andrew started hacking and coughing, leaning against a lambpost for support.

"W-wait...Tired...Need...r...rest..." No amount of silencing equipment could put out the sound of his heavy panting. Heavy drops of sweat dripped off from his face and fell to the hot pavement.

"Come on. We're almost there..." Julian started.

"We would've...been there...sooner...if som...someone...didn't...crash the c-car...like that!" Andrew said, in between pants and obviously ticked off.

"Now what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Ashton whipped around and glared at Andrew. "You saying this is MY fault?"

"Well, you could just...hit the brakes. No need...to...swerve the car..."

"For your information, smartass, there was a MONSTER on the ceiling. So why are you blaming this on me you son of a bitch!" Ashton suddenly marched up to Andrew, much to his surprise, and raised his fist. Andrew instantly ducked and Julian watched as Ashton's fist slammed into the lambpost Andrew had just been leaning on. When he withdrew it, a clear dent was seen. Ashton, including everyone, seemed shock at his sudden rage.

"I...I...Holy shit, Andrew. I didn't mean to..." Ashton stammered, staring at his fist. Not one sign of impact damage was seen on his knuckles. It still looked as good as new.

"Err, guys?" Desmond started backing into them, looking off in the distance. "I think your performance has attracted some unwanted visitors over there!" He lifted his hand and pointed, directing Julian's eyes towards an extremely dangerous scene.

In the distance, were 3 human-looking creatures. Only difference was that their skin was all green in colour, and as they got closer, Julian could see that they were constantly baring two rows of extremely sharp teeth. Small, black eyes lay on its reptilian head as the closest one in the group emitted a high-pitched shriek, followed by the other 2. The excrutiating sound nearly popped Julian's ear drums, but he would have time to worry about his hearing later. Those creatures stood almost as tall as them, and he assumed, from the scales on its skin, that they would be partially resilient to bullets as well.

"What the heck are those things!" Desmond's voice was high with panic.

"No time. Quick, into this building!" Julian turned and darted through the closest door. Great, another apartment. They dashed up the stairs onto the 2nd floor and into one of the rooms open, constant 'thump-thump's could be heard close behind. The room was in a total mess with overturned tables and chairs taking up quite an amount of space.

_Shit, these things are FAST! They're like hunters or something!_

The group piled into the spacious room, but were barely halfway across when the first of those Hunters darted into the room. It had only glanced at all four of them before the sound of gunfire ignited within the stuffy air of the room. Bullets from 2 handguns tore into the Hunter's face and chest, buying a few precious seconds for Ashton and Andrew, who were having a hard time making their way over the tables and chairs. Despite being pummelled with bullets, the Hunter only spent a second to recover before starting towards them again. By now, the other 2 Hunters had made their way into the room, further adding to their trouble. To top it all off, 2 zombies also staggered into the room through the door they had just used, right behind the Hunters. But the Hunters, as it seemed, appeared to be mroe interested in warm, human flesh.

"Dammit! We have to get out, NOW!" Julian yelled above the gunfire. Andrew had finally reached where they were standing and was beginning to unload several shotgun rounds into the 2 Hunters behind.

"Shit! I'm out!" Desmond shouted, and fumbled in his pocket for the extra clip. One Hunter must've realized that Desmond was distracted, for it gave one shriek and leapt a good 2 feet into the air, its long claws raised. Desmond looked up and only had time to raise his own arms to protect his face before the Hunter came down on him. It slashed him neatly across both of his arms, knocking his gun neatly into the corner. Desmond gave a yelp, staggered backwards and fell, eyes wide with fear as the Hunter began to walk up to him.

"Leave him alone!" Julian yelled and began to unload his last remaining bullets into the Hunter, pushing it back enough for Desmond to crawl away, before his clip clattered to the floor, empty. He quickly stole a glance around the room as he snatched out his extra clip and stuffed it back into his gun. Andrew was doing quite well keeping the other 2 Hunters at bay with his shotgun, though he was bound to run out of bullets soon. There was no sign of Ashton anywhere.

_The hell...? Where the fuck did Ashton go!_

Almost as if on cue, a loud, slightly human roar echoed within the room. Then, as fast as Julian could see, someone dashed forward and leapt straight into the Hunters.

A/N : Don't worry, more chapters coming up. Can't really give a solid date though, as my schedule is pretty much randomized...


	4. Light In A HellHole

Chapter 4 : Light in a Hell-Hole

The shadows cast by the moonlight seemed to slither around every corner as a teenage boy continued to jog down the path. He didn't know whether he was doing the right thing by being out here right now, but it seemed there was no other choice. His friends would die if they kept following him. Their only hope was to think that he abandoned them, so that they could escape the city on their own, restart a normal life somewhere else. No more danger will be placed on them because of him. Anyway, it was already too late to change anything. Ashton was dead, killed by his own hand, and it plagued the boy's mind with guilt and sorrow. Till now, he could still hear the screaming in his head, the immense booming of a weapon, and the final sound of a body hitting the ground.

A zombie shuffled out suddenly to the boy's right, and he sent 2 silenced bullets straight into its head. Watching its body slump lifeless to the ground, his tears began to flow. Of all times, his emotions decided to kick in now, where he was vulnerable out in the open, but he couldn't help it. If he kept his sadness inside, he would explode in no time, and as he hastily wiped his tears away to continue to his destination, his mind returned to that fateful moment...

**X-------X-------X**

Ashton flung himself into the Hunters and began to grab them, tearing them apart with little effort. The Hunters emitted high shrieks and tried to counter their new foe, but to no avail, and Julian's eyes widened as Ashton continued to make short work of the remaining Hunters and zombies, their blood staining his clothes in crimson red. Andrew, too, lowered his shotgun in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of him.

After the bloody massacre, all that was left on the ground were torn body parts, as well as a hell lotta blood. Ashton stood in the middle of it, his breathing loud enough to be heard in the entire room. His body was hunched over, constantly swaying up and down from his heavy breathing. Julian approached him cautiously, his weapon still raised, and then he noticed it.

Black veins had branched out from his injury and spread throughout his entire arm, some beginning to form on his neck and legs. Furthermore, his skin colour had grown to a deep red, a stark contrast to the pale colour just minutes ago.

"...Ashton? Are you-" Ashton tilted his head slightly at Julian's voice, and turned around completely. The expression on his face struck fear into julian's heart almost instantly.

Ashton's face had a look of intense rage and anger in it. Black, bulging veins snaked its way around his face, pulsing slightly. His eyes were red, blood-shot, concentrated on the teenage boy who now stood in front of him, threatening him with a weapon. It so wanted to mutilate the human, to wipe that silly look of its face, to vent his entire anger on it. The sheer thought of basking in another's blood made its own blood hot and excited.

Julian couldn't believe what he was looking at. Hours ago he was talking to a normal person, his face ridden with fear yet filled with kindness. Now, it was nothing more than the face of a nightmare. Ashton suddenly opened his mouth and screamed, no, _roared_, before charging straight into Julian. He had barely enough time to react as Ashton's shoulder connected heavily with Julian's stomach, sending him flying back and landing hard before screeching to a stop, his gun skidding to the side. Julian gasped as the air was forced out of his lungs from the impact, and saw Ashton turn his attention to a dumbstruck Andrew. He wanted to yell out for Andrew to run, but the pain in his lungs prevented him from doing so. As such, he could only watch as Ashton gave Andrew a clean punch in his jaw, sending him crashing into more chairs and tables. The attack knocked Andrew unconscious, for his body was motionless after it hit the ground.

"No, Ashton. What are you doing!" came Desmond's voice from the corner of the room. It drawed his attention long enough, though, for Julian to fully recover and retrieve his weapon. He struggled to get up and once again, aimed the gun at Ashton. This time, he was braced for impact.

"Ashton, don't make me do this..." Julian warned. His words fell onto deaf ears as Ashton turned and charged at him with his right fist raised. Seeing that nothing could be done to help Ashton anymore, and he seemed intent on beating the shit out of them, Julian pulled the trigger.

3 bullets slammed into Ashton's chest, and another 2 hit him in the face, yet he kept on coming. Julian leapt to the side at the very last moment, felt the whoosh of air as Ashton's muscular body flew past followed by a very loud bashing sound. Getting up from a crouching position, Julian only had time to see Ashton pull his fist out of the stone wall before he had to move again.

_Shit, headshots won't kill it! What kind of mutation is this!_

Julian sent another 4 rounds into Ashton's torso, and had to dive to the side again. Ashton was tiring him out, making him waste his energy before finishing him off, and Julian had to do something before he faints from exhaustion. Sweat dripping from his face, he quickly looked around for a solution, and found it in the glittering silver of Andrew's shotgun. But it lay too far away from him, Ashton would pummel him before he would even touch it.

_BANG BANG BANG!_

"Julian, go! Quick!" Desmond shouted. He was standing up and firing his weapon at Ashton. For some reason, Desmond had managed to read Julian's mind when he saw Julian looking at the shotgun, even for a second. The bullets sent Ashton into a rage and he opened his mouth again and roared as Desmond continued firing. He had bought Julian a few precious seconds.

Julian wasted no time. He dashed forwards and made it to the shotgun as Ashton refocused his attention at Julian, seemingly ignoring the bullets from Desmond's gun. Julian snatched the shotgun up and aimed it at Ashton, as he came charging at Julian again. Knowing that 9mms wouldn't do much to Ashton's head, he had to find another way to kill him, preferably by blowing his head clean off with the shotgun, but how was he going to do that with Ashton always charging at them too quickly?

The answer came to him instantly. And as he pulled the trigger, feeling the impressive recoil of the shotgun in his hands, he dreaded what he had to do later.

Ashton's left kneecap exploded in blurr of red. He fell to the ground on his other knee and roared, trying to get up. But with one knee completely mashed up by a shotgun blast, he could only crawl towads Julian slowly. The sight of it made Julian's heart drop. How could Ashton turn into something like this? So hellish, a mindless killing machine. Now, there was only one thing left to do. He glanced at Desmond, and after recieving a shaky nod from him, he whispered out 2 words to himself.

"For Ashton..."

Before aiming the shotgun at Ashton's head, point-blank range, and fired.

**X-------X-------X**

Julian gazed at his trembling hands again. No matter how hard he had rinsed his hands, the blood from Ashton's exploding head seemed to be fastened to his very skin, possibly a constant reminder of his actions, of what he had to do in order to survive. Clenching his hands didn't help much. The tears didn't stop, highly because he knew that he not only lost a good friend, but he had also left 2 more on their own.

He had left his friends in a zombie-infested city, to die...

No. He told himself again that his family was more important, more specifically, his father. Whether Andrew and Desmond make it out of the city, was up to their own abilities, but could they make it in their current state?

The battle had left its mark on them. Desmond sustained a clean cut across both his elbows when he used them to protect his face from the Hunter's attack. He did what he could, treating it with what anti-biotics they had left, and bandaging it up, though a visible red colour was still seen even through the thick, white bandage. Andrew got a huge bump on his head which left him slightly disorganised. Nothing he could do about that but let him rest and refocus. But how could anyone rest in this kind of environment, with demons lurking around in the shadows as well as inside oneself?

_Why the heck am I still going on about this! I made my decision, and I jolly well be happy about it..._

Erasing what thoughts he had about his friends from his mind, he wiped the last remaining tears from his face before continueing down the forsaken path. The lab was still a good distance away, but he would make a pit-stop at the Raccoon Police Department, or RPD for short, to see if there were any survivors. If possible, he would salvage, or beg, some ammo for his gun, then wish them the best of luck, accompanied by some hugs and kisses of eternal goodbye, and be on his way. In and out, simple as that. The problem is actually getting into the station without being mistaken as an armed zombie, if there was such a thing. But after seeing what happened to Ashton, Julian couldn't exactly rule out the possibilities of that happening, and trembled slightly at having to run from zombies with rocket launchers.

Speaking of rocket launchers, Julian's mind suddenly thought about the huge creature that Desmond saw passing by the minimart when the rest of them were in dreamland. What would be the chance of him bumping into that creature, if what he saw was real. T'would suck if one had to take on a rocket launcher wielding creature with only 2 small pathetic handguns. My, my, wouldn't that be-

_BAM! BAM! BAM!_

3 flashes of light came from a window in a building across the street, followed by a very distinct curse. Julian looked up and saw 'Raccoon Newspaper Department' written at the top of the building. Without hesitation, he glanced to and from the roads, and after ensuring that he wouldn't draw any extra company that would end up blocking off his escape, and whoever who was firing earlier, Julian made a mad dash across the streets and into the building. He slammed the door shut, its sound echoing throughout the entire building. He did it mainly because he wanted the survivor to know that at least there was still someone who wasn't hungry for human flesh. That is, unless the survivor has encountered zombies who slam doors shut...

The main lobby wasn't that big a mess, it was only when Julian got to the 2nd floor did he realize the chaos that had occurred here. Papers were strewn across desks and the floor, some stained red with blood. As usual, the chairs were laying everywhere and some of them were neatly broken in two. More dried blood stained the walls and windows. Julian noticed 3 motionless bodies scattered around the entire room, but after seeing a hole in each of their foreheads, assured himself that they weren't going to knaw at his ankle. It did leave quite a mess however, for brain matter were spewed all over the floor, along with some of the zombie's internal organs as well. The gunfire he saw and heard came from the 3rd floor window, but the door was on the other side of the room, which means...

"Oh man. This is disgusting..."

Julian couldn't help but voice his complain softly. Slowly, he began to step over the bodies and organs, making care to not squish anything for fear of attracting more blood-smelling creatures. He cringed his nose as he manuvered past and over the bodies. It smelt like someone puked on a turd, and a very huge puke at that! He slipped against a still-wet puddle of blood at the end and almost fell on his bottom, which got nothing out of him except a muted curse. Finally, after much effort, Julian made it to the stairway door. Ascending it happily, he opened the door to the 3rd floor.

And was rewarded with a gun pointing towards his face. Julian gave a yell and raised his arms in reaction.

"Don't shoot! I'm human!" For once, Julian actually sounded panicky. It's expected, of course, when someone aims a gun at your face, threatening to blow the shit out of your head.

The gun was lowered and Julian got a good look at his 'assailant'. Strangely enough, it was a woman. She was clad in a green colour shirt, and wore blue pants which reached all the way down to her ankles, making Julian wonder how she could ever run in those. Her figure, though, was close to perfect, as she had the waistline of a model. Her blonde hair was short, reaching only to just after her ears, and it ran down on both sides of her head, making her look like some female commando. Her face was pale in complexion, but was perfectly slim and proportionate to her head.

"Sorry, thought you were one of them smart zombies." She said, her voice fluent with an English accent. Well-educated and resourceful was all Julian could think of to describe the woman before he started speaking.

"So I see you've met them, assuming what I saw is similiar to yours." Julian replied. He couldn't help but blush though. This woman was indeed, hot.

"Oh yeah, they're the same alright." The woman said, face screweing up slightly, probably thinking back at what she encountered. " The name's Celine Ashcroft. No need for formalities though, we're still stuck in this shithole."

"Err...yeah, I kinda noticed that already. Julian Lias. So mind telling me what you're doing here?"

"Same goes to you. What made you dash into this building anyway?" Celine asked, studying Julian with intent eyes. Julian didn't like the way she looked at him, so analytical.

"Heard your gunshots, so I came to check it out."

"Saving the damsel in distress eh? Don't expect me to reward you with hugs and kisses, though it's good to see that there are other survivors in the city." Celine said, looking away. Something about her expression told Julian that she probably had to put down many of her zombified loved ones, and made sure that he was more careful with his words.

"You still haven't told me what you're doing in this building." Julian asked, almost demanding a reply.

"None of your business. It's personal." Celine snapped back with a look of agitation on her face.

_If she wants to be so secretive, it's fine by me. I don't really care much about what she's doing here anyway._

"What's up with the dual wielding handguns? Think this is some sort of game?" Celine demanded, gazing at the 2 guns held in each of Julian's hands.

"I just had to blow up one of my friend's head and abandon 2 of them. Think I still think this is a game!" Julian retorted, his nerves rising. How could anyone think this is fun, let alone think it's some sort of sick game? His reply shot a look of sympathy across Celine's face, but it quickly faded within seconds.

"...Whatever. I'm headed to the RPD, wanna tag along?" Celine said, walking past Julian towards the door.

"How coincedental, I was headed there too, before dashing in here to save a non-damsel in distress..." Julian replied with a smirk. Having a taste of one's own medicine was by far, the worst insult ever. Period. However, Celine just turned back and smiled sarcastically.

"Just don't get in my way, darling."

The sound of a door closing came floating up from the ground floor, and at once any expression on their faces wore off. Celine's eyes narrowed onto Julian, making him think that she's accusing him of something.

"Did something follow you in?"

"No, I didn't-" Julian wanted to explain, when a loud wailing sound filled the air. It sent shivers down Julian's spine, and he could see the shock and surprise on Celine's face, indicating that this was something she hand't encountered yet in her journeys.

As if reading each other's minds, they both dashed down to the ground floor, with Celine in the lead. Getting trapped in a building was not a very good idea. As soon as Julian set foot into the main hall, he realized that they were gonna be in for a big fight.

"Holy shit..." Celine mumbled.

Right at the front door, lay half a human body. The only difference was that the half body was so massive, that it was almost the same size as Julian himself. Its lower body was gone, and replacing them were 6 thick, ultra long tentacles which flailed about in the air, making it look like a new version of Medusa. The creature's skin looked severly burned, pieces of skin already hanging loose and falling off, along with patches of red and black. Its eyes, though, remained as white and cloudy. The creature looked up and wailed once again, though Julian thought it was roaring instead, before reaching one arm forward and dragging it a good feet across.

This snapped Celine out of her awe, as she stepped forward as well and opened fire onto it.

"Come ON, Julian! You wanna get torn apart by this freak!" She yelled over the gunfire. This also snapped Julian out of his shock, and he unloaded bullets from both his handguns into it.

A dozen rounds penetrated the creature's body, some into its head, others to keep the tentacles at bay. But if there was any effect that the bullets had, Julian could not see it. By the time he realized this, the creature had already pulled itself forward again, closing the distance between them and its deadly looking tentacles by another feet. The main lobby was relatively big, but given the size and range of this creature, it would corner them in no time. Sure, they could run back upstairs, but it would simply pursue them slowly and tear them apart sooner or later. They had to kill it here.

_Damn, what is this thing! Some kind of Reacher!_

Suddenly, one of its tentacles snapped forward, covering the distance between them in seconds, and slapped Celine across her face. It sent her flying to the side and crashing into the wall. Julian called out to her, still emptying his handgun into the creature, and saw 2 of its tentacles being swung backwards, signifying an attack. He managed to dodge the first strike, which went above his head, but the 2nd tentacle caught him neatly on his ankle, and he landed hard on his belly.

"Damn, this thing is persistent!" Celine yelled, now standing and reopening fire onto the creature. She only fired 3 shots before her handgun clicked empty. "SHIT!"

As Celine hastily tried to reload her gun, Julian raised his head and caught sight of another of the Reacher's tentacle shooting towards Celine.

"LOOK OUT!"

He managed to deliver his warning in time. Celine looked back up from her gun and instantly ducked. The tentacle slammed into the wall where her head had been seconds ago and neatly penetrated through the concrete, raining pieces of rock down onto Celine. A sure death blow if she didn't dodge it. Julian struggled to get back up as she opened fire, her gun reloaded fully.

The Reacher pulled itself forward again, completely oblivious to the bullets which pummelled into its body. Julian looked around for anything, anything at all, and spotted 2 large containers of water resting against the wall, and its position was smach in between the Reacher and themselves. If bullets can't kill it, maybe...

Julian didn't hesitate. He aimed his gun and fired 2 rounds into both containers. This instantly drained them of their contents, which was now all over the main hall. More importantly, the Reacher was already in contact with it.

"Hey! What the fuck are you doing! Bullets go into that thing, not some plastic container!" Celine shouted, extremely furious.

Julian then looked towards the counter desk beside them. Sure enough, a thick, black cable was running against the wall into the computer inbuilt into the desk itself.

"Cover me!" Julian yelled, gazing back at the Reacher and getting only a 'What the fuck!' from Celine. If his plan were to work, he was gonna have to hurry. The Reacher was almost halfway across the puddle of water. Pointing both his handguns at the cable, two sets of bullets were enough to break it, sending white sparks spurting out the broken end. Julian grabbed it and yanked the remaining portion out of the rest of the wall with much effort, while enduring Celine's constant cursing. The cable was heavy, but he didn't have to throw it that far. As such, he hefted it backwards, saw more sparks flying out from the cords, and hurled it forwards towards the puddle of water, already feeling a sense of achievement at his ingenious plan-

only to see the Reacher grab the cable with one of its tentacles. The live end hovered above the puddle of water, useless unless it actually _touched_ the water surface. It pulled the cable back further, looking like it was going to send it flying back into their faces.

"SHIT! Celine, take that tentacle out!" Julian shouted, already firing at the flailing tentacle. If it succeeded in throwing it back at them, it would make it across the puddle of water even before Julian could retreive the cable for another attempt, thus rendering them as DEAD. He couldn't let that happen, not before getting to his father.

_For my father! Die you bloody crawling BITCH!_

The combined firepower of Celine's Browning HP Handgun and Julian's standard handguns was well worth it. The tentacle which grasped the live cable exploded in the middle portion where they had concentrated their attack. The cable dropped to the ground in a seemingly slow-motion, before erupting in a shower of sparks as its cord touched the water surface.

Julian had to shield his eyes from the sheer brightness of it. The Reacher wailed and howled, its tentacles thrashing about wildly, as its body fried under the high voltages. It took only 5 seconds before it lay motionless, black smoke floating up from its sizzling body. Julian stood up and breathed in heavily, trying to catch his breath, knowing that it was finally over, then bent over and vomitted his guts out. If it was anything, the smell which now filled the entire lobby was worse than anything Julian had smelt before, including putting 3 rotting zombies in a container and sticking his head into it.

When he was done puking, he leaned against the wall and started breathing again, taking care not to inhale too much of the horrid stench, and saw Celine walking up to him, a smile on her face.

"That was gross, now you're gonna ruin my shoes! Oh, and don't expect me to thank you for saving my life." She said, holding a thumbs-up.

"Don't worry, I don't intend too." Celine's tough attitude certainly ticked Julian off, but now he at least knew how to deal with it.

"One little question though," Celine continued, giving a very sarcastic confused look. "how we supposed to get out of this building now?"

Julian looked back at the Reacher's carcass. The puddle of water occupied a good portion of the lobby, and even if they managed to find a way past it by dragging the cable away, the Reacher's corpse itself stretched across the entire lobby, along with its tentacles which branched out from it. They could climb over its body, but Julian didn't even want to touch it with a 10-foot pole, let alone put his hands and legs on it.

"...2nd floor window?" Julian questioned, noticing the pissed off look on Celine's ever-changing face.

"Ah fuck..."


	5. Chase

Author's Note : First up, I am EXTREMELY sorry for not updating for along time. To compensate, this chapter is a little longer that usual...i think. But anyways, I wanna thank the reviewers Rezie, jake blackthorn (although urs wasn't exactly a review, but thanks anyway!), and sigokat, who offered some good opinions which i hope have been met with in this chapter.

By the way, in this chapter I brought in the names of some Outbreak characters since my characters are going to a location that other characters obviously passed through. Hope that doesn't affect anything.

Oh, and um...I do not have any disclaimers...Yeah, that should sound just right...I think...

All right, enough rambling. Please read and enjoy (and review) this chapter while I go do up the next chapter in the story!

Chapter 5 : Chase

Andrew was pissed, and to an extremely large extent as well. Never did he think that Julian was that sort of character to leave them behind. He had gotten up to check on Desmond, who, up till now, still failed to maintain his snoring to a minimum level, and that was when he discovered that Julian was missing. Ashton's handgun was missing as well, which suggested that Julian had left with the comfort of 2 pieces of heavy metal in his hands. All that was left was a piece of scribbled note lieing on the piece of cloth where Julian was supposed to be sleeping.

_"Sorry, have to go. Father may not have much time left. You 2 should escape the city first."_

A hastily scribbled note. This did not really help to calm Andrew's anger, though. The 3 of them had been best friends for so long, how could Julian even think of leaving them behind in such a situation.

_Which is why, when I find him, he's gonna get a serious knuckle-sandwich from me..._

Desmond stirred in his sleep, his arms bandaged up from their earlier battle. Julian couldn't have gone far yet, and Andrew had a vague idea where he would stop at first. It was a risk, a very high one at that, but it's better than running around the entire town while low on ammo. Whichever way, he hoped that the path they took was the same as Julian's, and that he had cleared it of any zombies and overgrown stalkers. Desmond's condition could still allow him to fire a handgun, but his accuracy and rate of firing would be affected, since the cuts went so deep it almost touched the bone. With that in mind, he bent down and hesitantly shook Desmond awake.

"Hey, wake up. We got a problem on our hands." He mumbled, afraid that unnecassary noise would attract more of those hellish Hunters.

Desmond opened his eyes and sat up, yawning loudly. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Someone decided to bail on us..."

"What!" Desmond snapped. He glanced over to Julian's sleeping place and saw the note lieing on it. "How did he...argh!" He rubbed the bandages which wound around his arms, a sudden pain shooting through them as if his sudden surge of frustration had tore the wound open again.

"Relax, man! Wouldn't want the wound to start bleeding again." Andrew studied Desmond's bandages. True enough, a patch of red was slowly radiating out from the cuts. "Now look, the wound's open again. Gotta change it."

Andrew carefully unwrapped the bandages and removed the medical gauze that he and Julian placed on each cut. Despite having been well treated, the injury still looked serious -- a single deep gash across, 1 on each arm, several strands of flesh were, initially, literally hanging out of the cut, but slicing it off with the scalpel was simple enough, aside from Desmond's constant screaming. It would need stitching, but they have to make do with what they have now. Given their basic first aid skills, Andrew highly doubted he could seal the wound effectively without sticking needles throughout Desmond's entire arm.

He couldn't really believe what Julian said when he told Andrew about Desmond's continuouos firing even after sustaining such an injury. For someone like Desmond, who usually looked like he could catch a fever anytime, this was an act not commonly seen by him. Andrew decided that from now on, he wasn't treating Desmond like a pussy anymore. His respect for Desmond probably shot up 50 points.

Having successfully changing the bandage, Andrew gazed dismally into the first aid kit.

"We only have enough for roughly 2 more dressings, so you better be careful about that wound. Otherwise you may simply bleed out. A slow and painless death..." Andrew joked, a horrendous one at that, receiving a light punch on his shoulder. "Right, let's go meet up with our friend."

"Ok, but please go slow..." Desmond smirked a little, then struggled to get up with the help of Andrew. He was certainly going to have a hard time running, since he couldn't exactly pump his hands for speed. As such, all was left in the hands, and shotgun, of Andrew. He glanced back at Desmond, noticing the cuts and dirt on his battered face.

And, at once, they both turned their heads to the window, the sound of a dozen gunshots, far yet clearly audible, echoeing throughout the stillness of the night air.

**X-------X-------X**

"Don't worry, just jump!" Julian called out to the woman hanging in midair outside the 2nd floor window. "Land on your feet and you'll be alright, dammit!"

"Shut your trap!" Celine yelled back in a panicky voice, and then murmured to herself. "What is it with you people and heights..."

Celine's legs continued to flail about in the air as she struggled to make a decision -- jump down, or climb back in and brave the squishy corpse of the monster they had just killed. Julian made it look simple enough, easily hopping out the window and landing with a loud thud. Celine only made it to the pole sticking out of the wall before her fears set in. She was a freaking woman, and why can't people see that women and heights cannot be equated together. This was gonna break one of her nails, or twist her ankle, or she could simply fall to her death from a 2nd floor window...

"Could you just hurry up! Your stunt has apparently caught the attention of a bunch of zombies, over there!" Julian pointed back, and Celine saw 3 zombies, maybe four, she couldn't see clearly in the darkness, shuffling their way towards them, hands already outstretched, eager to grasp onto warm flesh.

She looked back down at Julian and saw that he had his hands outstretched. How the hell was a teenage boy gonna catch a grown woman? Whatever the case, she braced herself for impact, but even before she could get ready, her sweaty hands slipped off the iron pole. She let out a relatively loud 'WHOA!' before falling and collapsing directly on top of Julian.

All Julian saw was a figure growing at a sudden rate before he felt something slam into his back. He fell face-flat to the floor and onto his belly, letting out a muffled 'oomph!'. He craned his neck around and saw Celine sitting on him with a dazed look on her face.

"Wow, that was some ride..." Celine said, smiling a little.

"Right. Now you could...like...get OFF me." The zombies were only a few feet away and Celine still had the nerves to enjoy her fall. Or, maybe, she enjoyed landing on him. A soft-landing, one would say.

The moaning from the zombies snapped Celine out of her daze, and she got up on the spot, adding more pressure to Julian's back. Tolerating the pain, he staggered to his feet and they both shot off in the opposite direction, legs acheing from the constant running. Julian heard one final moan from the zombies behind them before they turned the corner, losing them completely. However, more zombies started to make their way out into the open, so they couldn't stop yet. Julian wasn't made for long-distance running, but his determination and adrenaline fueled his body, giving him the energy he needed to sprint if the need arises.

Celine, on the other hand, was taking it even better than he was. She paced herself, and even in the dim light, Julian could hardly see any drops of sweat trickling down her smooth face, whereas he himself was starting to sweat like a pig.

_Guess there's more to her than meets the eye._ Indeed, Celine was a marvellous yet slightly secretive individual. Refusing to tell him what she was doing in the newspaper building already turned some of Julian's warning lights on in his head. Why should he care now? Time, as they say, will reveal all. He only feared HOW her secret would be revealed, if any.

As they ran, the monotonious scene poked at his nerves. For almost an entire day, he saw nothing but wrecked cars, dead bodies (including both motionless and walking bodies) and a whole lot of blood. People say that constantly staring at the same thing will definitely make you go crazy, and Julian started to think that it was true. When was all this going to end before he loses his sanity?

_After I get to my father, everything will change for the better. Just, keep it that way God. Please..._

Julian laughed silently at himself for thinking like that. He wasn't exactly a strong believer, perhaps strong enough only to give thanks when something miraculous happened to him. Where was God now? They were in a city of living dead, where one can probably say that the souls of hell have risen from the burning depths and possessed the dead people. No shining light or undying faith was going to save them. Only by instincts, and by his guns, would Julian even hope to see the light of day again.

Finally, after outrunning a dozen zombies and sweating his guts out, the huge, ancient building of the RPD loomed into view. From afar, Julian could see that it still looked alright, could already picture opening the front doors and being greeted by several well-armed cops. Still, sure, the building looked fine on the outside, save for the column of smoke that was floating into the sky from the roof, but who can be certain about the inside?

"Come on, time's a wastin'!" Celine gestured at him, obviously impatient to get inside the RPD.

Together, they jogged till they reached the front gates, which hung wide open. On both sides of it, stood several slouching zombies, all of which, upon hearing their arrival, stood up straight and started towards them, their skeletal hands outstretched and mouths moaning. Some of the zombies were dressed in normal casual clothing, but others were in police uniforms. This could only suggest one thing.

The RPD had been lost.

But if they weren't going to get inside, they would be on the dinner menu. Even though more dangers could await them inside, they at least had to try. The RPD, after all, was his one-and-only pit stop anyway.

"Oh crap. Front doors, take out only those necassary!" Julian shouted at Celine.

"Who are you to-" Celine started but Julian had already dashed forwards, fresh new adrenaline flushing into his body. He shot 2 zombies in front of him, catching one in its head and the other in its chest, and reached the front gates, whereby he fired at the 2 zombies standing right in front of the front entrance. Behind, Celine took out another 3 and yelped when a zombie lunged at her, missing narrowly by an inch.

Julian ran in front and slammed into the double-doors, literally collapsing onto the ground when it opened. Celine almost made it through, but somehow, one of the zombies had managed to squeeze itself between the doors as Julian struggled to close it. However, it was politely greeted by the black nozzle of Celine's gun before slumping to the ground. Julian shut the doors and locked it, stepping backwards when the constant pounding and moaning of the zombies started only a few seconds after. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he turned to Celine who was also panting.

"That was close..." He said.

"Sure. But one more thing," Celine frowned and put her hands up to her hips. "next time, you do NOT command me to do anything, got it?"

Julian gave her the 'Whatever...' look, not wanting to waste time argueing with her, and turned towards the lobby of the RPD.

And was only partially surprised at seeing the massacre which lay in front of him. It then confirmed that they were going to have a rough time in the entire building. In this kind of situation, knowing that the only 'sanctuary' in the entire city was completely wasted sure helped him in the confidence sector.

Bodies of both men and women, cops and civilians, lay dispersed throughout the lobby, all of which had bullet holes in their heads, much to Julian's relief. The blood, though, had slicked its way around. In puddles, or trailing down the slopes on either side of the lobby, it stunk up the entire area. Julian cringed his nose, desperately wanting out of here. Or, at least, somewhere where it didn't smell of dried blood. Is there no single place in this city now that was still kind to their noses?

"Aw man, not here to." Celine sighed. "Listen, I got to go look for something. You go do your stuff, and we meet back here in fifteen regardless."

"Now _you're _commanding _me_?" Julian retorted.

"Just shut up and do what I say, kid." A humph was all Celine got from Julian before she turned to her right and walked through the door which lead to the east wing. The door creaked to a close, and Julian was alone again.

_Great. Alone, low on ammo, unsure of what horrors are awaiting me. This couldn't get any better._

Julian had only been here twice so far -- once to apply for his IC, and another was because Andrew had gotten into some trouble, and he begged Julian to come and get him out. As such, he vaguely remembered that the night-duty room was somewhere on the east wing. He would go there later, since he didn't particularly want to interrupt on Celine's secret job. Right now, he would search the other rooms branching off from the main lobby first. Carefully manuvering his way across the sea of bodies, he entered the double wooden doors on his left. Inside, the room was well furnished, looking as if it hadn't even been touched since the outbreak occurred. There was a receptionist window along the right wall, and a whole bunch of desks and drawers sticking out from the left wall. In the middle of the room, stood a circular stand, on it rested a flower vase, its leaves still shining a healthy green. The marble floors were unstained, gleaming a fluoroscent white. After seeing the hellish state of the city, this would have to be considered a paradise on earth.

Figuring that it wouldn't hurt to be a thief now, Julian began to rummage through each of the drawers. Some were locked, much to Julian's disappointment, others had nothing inside but useless papers. So far, all he managed to find was a box of shotgun shells, which he shoved into his pocket in case he stumbled across that magnificient weapon.

Thinking about the shotgun brought him back to the image of Andrew and Desmond. He wondered what they were doing right now, what they were going through. Honestly, a part of him wanted to just scream out loud, to release all his anger and guilt at leaving them behind, but he controlled himself, determined not to lose his sanity at such times. He had to be strong. He had to survive and see them again, once he made it out of the city. Dieing now would be letting his friends down, especially what they had gone through together.

Julian walked back out and proceeded to the counter. He passed by the statue of a nymph holding a water jug, and it struck him how elaborate this place was. Mansion-like, weird statues, brown walls and doors, and the last time he heard, there were reports of secret passages being found in the building. He wondered what kind of architect was employed to design such a building.

The computer was still running, its loud humming suggested that it had been on for quite some time. On the screen was a bunch of names which Julian read out to himself.

"Transport to next shelter -- Officer Kevin Ryman, Officer Rita..."

_Nothing interesting here._

"Transport to Raccoon University -- George Hamilton, Yoko Suzuki, Alyssa Ashcroft..." Julian stopped and stared at the screen.

_Alyssa Ashcroft? Did Celine ever said she had a sister? Or maybe, that was the reason why she wanted to come here... I better tell this to her when I see her again._

Julian flicked the monitor off. Looking up, he decided to explore the 2nd set of double doors directly across the counter. Besides, there was still time before he had to meet up with Celine in the lobby, assuming she WAS going to come back. Thus, confident in his timing, Julian pushed open the doors, oblivious to the trail of blood at his foot.

A long hallway stretched out in front of him, turning left at the end. There was a door on the right, and another further down. Furthermore, the 1st door was slightly ajar, as if beckoning him to enter. Shuddering at such thought, Julian stepped forward, pushing the door open.

And then he saw it. The room was meant to be some sort of break room, where tired officers could come and shake their legs for a while. Everything was as it should be, excluding the huge puddle of blood in the middle of the room. Spreaded out in a spatter, Julian cringed at the thought of someone bleeding out to such an extent. Then, something shiny caught his attention, beside the puddle of blood.

It was a Browning HP handgun, the exact same that Celine used. From the knowledge he gained in classes, the Browning packed more punch than his standard handgun, at the cost of having a slightly higher recoil. It was a marvel that Celine was still so graceful using it, seeing her accuracy when they were fighting the Reacher. Julian decided that he would switch his handguns for the HP. A couple of minutes of transferrin bullets and he was done, now satisfied with the slightly heavier metalweight in his hand.

_This should take care of any idiot who tries to eat me..._

With his pockets almost full from carrying handgun as well as shotgun rounds, Julian took his time checking out the break room. There were several half-eaten donuts laying on the table, which Julian wasn't very inclined to touch, a hint at how sudden things happened.

It was true though. Just 2 days ago, he was happily attending classes, catching up with friends, whistling at pretty girls, doing what almost every sterotypical teenager does. Then, all his work, his life, everything around him, all changed dramatically within one night. Luckily, his family members was still in New York. His mother sent him to Raccoon because life looked promising there, away from all the cheating and ridicule he had experienced in New York schools.

Then, there was his father, who was probably still waiting for him to come and save the day. A day had already passed and he was no where near the labs yet. How long could a normal human survive while being tortured and without food or water?

No. He once again told himself that he still had time. Steven won't give up that easily.

He didn't know how long he spent reflecting on all that had happened. It was foolish to do that now, what's done is done. Only thing left is to kick the ass of anything that tries to piss him off. Or, eat him.

Regathering what hope remained in him, Julian turned and walked out of the room. He decided that he should check out the rooms further down. Who knows what his search would turn up?

_Maybe a grenade launcher, or a particle cannon, or some kick-ass disintergrater... Oh yeah, you just keep-_

_THUMP!_

Julian whirled around, back towards the door which lead back to the main lobby. The loud effect didn't repeat itself, but it sounded like someone jumped down from the 2nd floor and landed hard on the legs. What made it worse, was that Julian didn't exactly close that door properly, it was still swaying slightly on its hinges.

"Err...who's there? Celine?" Julian's voice trembled.

Just then, a hand shot out and grabbed the side of the door. Julian took a few steps back at seeing the blood-soaked hand.

_Wait, that's not blood, that's the colour of its skin!_

He was right. The skin colour was of a sickening crimson red. His thoughts suddenly drifted to Ashton's mutation, recalling how rage-filled his face had been, completely red, remembering how hard it had took them to kill him when he turned phsyco.

The door slowly creaked open. But that was enough for Julian to turn tail and run for what he was worth, even as the door behind suddenly exploded open, an enormours roar echoeing in the narrow hallway.

**X-------X-------X**

"Ugh, what the hell is this thing...?" Desmond gagged as he stared at the enormous carcass.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know. Think this was where those gunshots we heard earlier occurred, which means..." Andrew trailed off.

They had been jogging for a while and wanted to stop for a rest. That was when they caught sight of the dead creature. It was huge, with several tentacles branching out from where its lower abdomen would be. The entire body was riddled with bullets, plus it was smoking too, making it look like whoever who fought it wanted not only to kill it, but mutilate the body as well.

"That Julian was here?" Desmond finished his sentence. "But I don't think he could've caused this much damage by himself..."

"As long as we know that he's still alive and runnin', it's possible. Come on, we still have some distance to cover."

_How the heck did something like this come into existence anyway? _Andrew thought. All of a sudden, his thoughts drifted to his father. Amidst the chaos, Andrew didn't know why he chose only now to think about his father. Something inside him told him that his father had something to do with what happened in Raccoon City, but he didn't think it was possible. Earlier that year, Philip said that he was going to be overseas for the rest of the year, so he couldn't have anything to do with this. Could he?

Andrew brushed the thought aside. His father wouldn't lie to him about anything, neither would he unleash a deadly virus into the very city his son was living in.

Leaving the rotting carcass of the monster behind, they continued down the path that would take them to the RPD. Desmond didn't think it was such a good idea to simply take a stab in the dark and head towards the RPD, but Andrew knew that the RPD was along the way to the lab, so it would make sense that Julian stop by. They wound their way around trashed cars and debri to avoid the zombies, wanting to conserve the little ammo they had left, until the enormous RPD loomed into their view. Their hopes rose for a short while, until they saw the problem at the front gate.

A group of zombies were banging their hands against the front entrance, moaning loudly. Outside on the field, many other zombies were loitering around, some already turning towards them.

"Quick, the stairs!" Andrew yelled.

They dashed ahead through the gate and immediately ran off to their left. Andrew noticed that there were already some dead zombies lying on the ground. Good sign, for it showed that Julian was inside. At the bottom of the stairs, Andrew spotted a small duct that he could barely fit into, and it probably lead to some area in the RPD.

_Hell, anywhere would be fine, as long as we can avoid being zombie chow!_

He impatiently gestured for Desmond to crawl in 1st, and turned towards the top of the stairs. Already, some zombies were starting to make their way down the stairs. Andrew didn't think they were smart enough to climb up or down stairs, but if they simply tripped and fell all the way down, he was going to have a problem.

And true enough, the zombies began to trip and tumble their way down. Even after such a fall, they sluggishly stood back up and began to stumble their way towards Andrew. As such, he turned and dove into the duct, cramming himself into the small passageway to safety and leaving the haunting moans of the zombies behind.

**X-------X-------X**

"Ah damn, it's not here too!" Celine exclaimed to herself, thrusting her arms into the air.

Her search of the night-duty room hadn't been too fruitful, obviously, and the messy state of the room only added to her frustration. She had earlier skipped the entire east office because the night-duty room seemed to be the most obvious location to search in. Now she regretted not searching there first.

_Heck, I'll check that bloomin' office later. Better see what's in the prison first._

Flinging a bunch of useless documents into the wall, she stomped her way out of the room. Her desperate ransacking only turned up an extra clip for her gun, nothing else. Not even a little notebook with directions pointing her to where to look.

Nearing the end of the stair railing, she thought she spotted movement to her right, and immediately whipped her handgun in that direction, down the long hallway she just took. The 'movement' she thought she saw was only the twitching body of the dead Licker that lay in the middle of the hallway.

Initially, when she saw the carcass when she entered the hallway, time literally froze for a few seconds, flashes of memories sweeping through her mind as her eyes widened and her anger intensified. She recalled the blood, the gunfire, the screaming of her helpless nephew as a Licker tore him apart like a fucking rubber toy. It was a pity this Licker was already dead when she came, otherwise she could vent out her anger on it by tearing it to pieces, just as it did to her 10-year old nephew.

Celine felt a tear suddenly roll down her left cheek, and she hastily wiped it away. There was no-one watching, no point in making herself look good. But she wasn't a crying or emotional person. It would deem her as a weak-minded individual, something which she absolutely hated. After witnessing the death of her nephew right in front of her eyes, she had to be strong. She had to get out alive and spread the word about what happened in Raccoon. Whoever did this will definitely pay.

She tip-toed her way down the stairs and found herself in yet another long, dull hallway.

"Geez, does this place revolve entirely around narrow walkways!" Celine grumbled to herself.

Proceeding down the hallway and turning right at the junction, she continued to grumble to herself until she reached the underground garage. It was funny, though. No zombies were seen along the entire way, only dead ones that had a pretty hole in their heads. Seems like someone already cleared the building.

_Huh, some luck at last._

She was so engrossed in thanking her luck that she didn't see the 2 people standing near the small hole, until they trained their guns towards her when she suddenly strolled in happily. In an instant reflex, Celine responded in kind.

A few moments passed with both parties staring into each other's barrels. It appeared that the 2 people she was aiming at were only teenagers. However, it WAS kinda funny to see one holding a standard handgun and the other with a Remington 12-gauge shotgun, especially with her only holding a Browning handgun.

"Who are you?" Celine demanded.

"An...Andrew Jacobs. This here is Desmond. Now may I ask who are _you_?" The slightly-fat one replied, still holding the shotgun high.

"I'm Celine, and that's all you need to know. What are you doing here anyway?" She lowered her weapon, and saw them do the same.

"Um...we came here looking for someone. Have you seen a-" Desmond started.

Somehow, Celine couldn't control herself. Something told her that these were the 2 friends that Julian said he left behind, back when they were still at the newspaper office. "You mean Julian Lias?" She interrupted. "Sure, I've seen him."

She saw Andrew's eyes light up upon hearing her words. "Really? Where?"

"All I can say is that he is in this building, we just split up a while ago. Speaking of which..." Celine trailed off. It was almost 15 minutes since she left the main lobby. She should be getting back, especially since now there were 2 extra teenagers she had to babysit. It would be better if she dumped them with Julian so that she could check out the prison area.

Then, as if on cue, a distant roar could be heard in the oil-filled air of the garage, followed shortly after with several gunshots.

_Oh man, not again...!_

Reading each other's minds, all 3 of them dashed towards the door Celine came from. She could only pray that Julian hadn't gotten himself into a very bad monster situation.


	6. Reunion or Desperation?

Author's Note : Once again I am SO sorry that I took so long to update this chapter. Also, this chapter seems kinda short, so i hope you readers would still carry on reading! By the way, I would also appreciate it if you readers could read and REVIEW. I desperately need opinions on my style of writing!

Oh, and I do not have any disclaimers(?) hope i got it right...

Chapter 6 : Reunion or Desperation?

Julian half-turned as he ran and sent 3 rounds into the monster's chest, making it more furious than ever judging from its insanely loud roar. Whether the gods above weren't happy with him, or he was always at the wrong place in the wrong time, it didn't matter. What mattered now was avoiding being ripped to shreds by a mindless killer.

The hallways wasn't helping much either. After he turned the corner, there was only a fraction of a second for him to take note that the he was approaching the end of the hallway before the heavy footsteps behind him forced him to carry on. His only chance was the door at the end, against the right wall.

Feeling that maybe it wasn't going to be such a good idea, Julian couldn't give a damn about what he felt was good or bad. He simply bashed into the room and attempted to close the door behind him, locking it and keeping himself safe.

But he had just started to swing the door back before he saw a blurred image of something dashing towards him, followed by a loud crash, and himself being flung all the way back as the door splintered, hanging off only one of its hinges. The Crimson Head stood there, its chest heaving heavily with its fury. It was clad in a cop uniform, initially blue, now stained and soaked with blood. No doubt it was the one responsible for the puddle of blood Julian had seen back in the break room. It had all the features he had seen on Ashton when he had mutated into something similar -- bloodshot eyes, red-coloured skin, thick, bulging veins stretching around its face, arms and legs. Furthermore, the person who had mutated into this must have been well-built, for it was enormous, arms fat with muscles and it was easily a foot taller than Ashton.

Julian scrambled to get up, immediately surveying the room for anything useful. He was in a spacious room -- and he was thankful for that -- with several class-sized tables and chairs set in straight rows near the end of the room, in front of a rectangular board. Surely this must be a briefing room. As such, it kinda hinted that there was nothing that was going to help him, which kinda sucked, given the current circumstances.

The Crimson Head charged at him, raising its fist. Julian leaped to the side, unable to prevent himself from having the horrid flashbacks of them fighting a mutated Ashton. How was he going to stop prevent it? The monster had the exact same fighting style, the same relentless urge to kill, just about everything was similar.

_Which means it must have the same weakness...!_

Not sure of whether it was going to work again, Julian stood back up and aimed. The Crimson Head, which had flew past him quite a good distance, turned back and snarled. That was when Julian went trigger-happy. Several bullets peppered into its kneecap, Julian hoping that the slightly increased firepower of the Browning HP handgun would work to his advantage.

It didn't. The monster just stood there, looking like it was enjoying the pain it needed to fuel its rage. It reared back and sprung towards Julian at an amazing speed. He tried to dodge to the side, but it swung its fist in a semi-circle, catching Julian neatly on his left shoulder. He literally spun 360 degrees in the air before crashing hard to the floor. Shoulder throbbing, Julian struggled to regain his balance. After the spinning he made just now, the world seemed to be spinning around non-stop as well. But he wasn't even halfway up when a leg shot in and up, straight into his stomach. The air was wheezed from his lungs and Julian keeled over, coughing and gasping for air.

Again, he couldn't recover fully before he was picked up easily and hurled across the room, crashing into the tables. It was quite apparent now that the Crimson Head wasn't going to stop until Julian was mashed into a pulp, but he was now almost on the verge of blacking out. How the hell was he going to fight back?

He felt strong hands grip his shirt and instantly, he was slammed against the wall. Then, his air supply was suddenly cut off as the Crimson Head gripped his neck. Its hand was extremely hot, as if burning with fire, and it was strong as hell. Its grip was worse than a vice, almost like it wanted to crush his neck, make him cough out blood.

Julian's eyes grew blurry, his thrashing arms and legs losing energy and slowing down as he continued to choke on the monster's grip.

_No...It can't end like this...Please..._

An explosion of gunshots was heard from the door. The Crimson Head roared and dropped him, turning to meet its new enemies. Julian collapsed to the floor and grasped at his chest, hacking and breathing in the heavenly air. He continued to lie down, not wanting to be caught in the cross-fire. Shots from guns as well as a shotgun continued to ring in his ears, already giving him a hint about his helpers.

_Stupid...stupid...idiots..._

And he momentarily blacked out.

**X-------X-------X**

The woman dashed straight into the room when they heard crashing sounds coming from inside. Andrew was right behind her, shotgun held ready, gearing himself up to blow the brains out from whatever it was that was terrorising his close friend.

What he did not expect, however, was seeing his close friend being choked upon by a zombie which resembled Ashton's mutation in terms of skin colour and ferociousness.

Desmond didn't hesitate. He immediately opened fire on the monster as soon as he stepped into the room. At once, they all followed cue and started firing at it as well. The monster dropped Julian, who began hacking and coughing, and roared at them, making heavy footsteps towards the trio. However, the combined firepower of 2 handguns and a shotgun gave it no chance to approach them, and finally it began stumbling backwards, attempting to recover after each successive shotgun blast. It was to no avail, and within a few seconds, the once monstrous Crimson Head was now nothing but a pile of seriously mashed up shit.

Andrew ran up to Julian's limp body as Celine examined the carcass. She then proceeded to kick it a few times, muttering several curses under her breath. A spit of saliva wrapped up her performance and she turned back to face them, a clear look of disgust and hate written all over her face.

The state of Julian's body didn't look very pleasing. Multiple bruises covered his arms and face, and slight tears were seen on his shirt. His hair was all rumpled and messy. All in all, in Andrew's opinion, Julian did look like shit now.

Well, it is Julian Lias he was talking about, a boy who did have a slight tendency to dash into trouble. But it was that trait which made Julian so energetic, so daring, something which Andrew envied slightly, to have that inner strength.

It reminded him of his father. Diving into the world of science and viral research, his father's interest in his work matched Julian's personality. Perhaps that was why Philip was always deeply sunken into his papers to have time for him.

But what was he thinking? His father's work was the pride of the both of them. It made him feel like he had something to be thankful of, an image to look up to. How could he even dare to imagine that his father would care less about him when it came down to a choice between the two. Then again, the mind of a scientist was an unpredictable one.

Andrew felt Julian's body stir in his arms, and looked down to see that he had already opened his eyes. For a second, Andrew felt extremely relief.

"Andrew? What...what are you guys doi-" Julian muttered.

And as quickly as the relief came, he literally dropped Julian back down, his head hitting the floor with a loud 'thud' as Andrew's voice became a shout.

"What the fuck were you thinking, bailing out on us with Desmond in this condition!" Ignoring the soft "Oww..." that came from Julian, he continued with his lecture. "Geez man, don't you give a shit about your friends?"

"I...I'm sorry, but I didn't really..." Julian stammered, obviously at a lost of words. Shouldn't he? After all, convinced that leaving his friends behind would cause them to escape the city by themselves, only to see them right in front of his eyes again, no explaination would be able to justify his action. The only thing now is to endure Andrew's wrath.

"Ack, whatever. As long as you know, this is really going to hurt your record!"

Throughout Andrew's performance, Celine stood at the side, smiling to herself. She didn't know why, this scene particularly seemed so familiar somehow, back when she was surrounded by her loved ones. However, as soon as Julian turned his head towards her, the smile disappeared almost instantly. Not wanting to maintain eye-contact, she turned to the other boy. What was his name again? Desmond? She could see that he was hunched over, examining something on his arm. Like there was some automatic mechanism inside her, she stepped forward to get a better look. Turned out Desmond was simply checking on the bandage around his arm. The thin line of blood trickling down the bandage stood out against the white colour of the dressing.

Trying not to sound too sympathetic, Celine kept her voice firm. "Hey, you alright?"

Desmond looked up and hastily tried to turn his arm away and hide his injury, not doing a very good job at all. "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Really."

"Ok, suit yourself." Celine walked back towards the other 2, of which Andrew was still trying to make his point via venting out his anger. "Um, when you both are done admitting your love for each other, could we get a move on? I have to look for something."

A sigh and a grunt was all she got before she stomped past them and back out into the brown hallway. Babysitting one was bad enough, now she had two more teenagers following her. Things couldn't be any worse.

_Then again, things were never good in the first place._ That sentence remained in her head as she walked down the narrow passageway, a series of footsteps echoeing behind her.

**X-------X-------X**

Who knew the short trip back to the main lobby could be filled with pain?

_When you've been thrown around by a crazed monster, that's when..._

Julian half walked, half limped between Andrew and Desmond as Celine lead the way to wherever she wanted to go. When they passed the reception desk in the lobby, Julian was just about to open his mouth to say something, remembering what he read on the computer. But judging by Celine's impatient footsteps and muttered curses, he felt it would be better to bring it up later. He didn't particularly want Celine blowing up in his face at this moment.

Through the oak door to the left of the entrance (which was still constantly shaking on its hinges, thanks to the eager zombies waiting outside.) and they carried on into the east office. As they walked past the long row of tables and pushed through a door to the left, Julian saw coffee cups resting on a corner of the table, presumably ice-cold, along with several folders, papers and stationary, all covered in a thin layer of dust.

_What the... Has it been left untouched for that long?_

Well, obviously. Even though it all started only two days ago, it already seemed like ages. In the midst of a dead city, Julian highly doubted anyone would want to grab on to folders and pencils. Hell, even the cops are gone too. If trained men and women couldn't even survive this kind of situation, what chances did they themselves have? How was it that Julian and his friends managed to get this far, without succumbing to whatever responsible for all this? Was it his determination to find his father? Was it their unity and understanding that made them unique? Was it-

"Holy..." Desmond took a step back, almost knocking both Julian and Andrew over. He pointed ahead, and Julian trailed his finger to the dead thing sprawled out on the floor. "Th-That's...That's..."

"It's dead, now hurry up...!" Celine gestured impatiently, gracefully stepping over the Licker.

"That's the thing that killed...that killed Ashton..." Desmond's eyes were wide with fear, his body starting to tremble.

Andrew hurriedly put his hand on Desmond's shoulder, squeezing it, spurting words into Desmond's face. "Come on Desmond, don't break down now. There was nothing you could have done back then!"

"But...but it..." Desmond started.

"KEEP FOCUSED!" Andrew snapped back, making Julian jump. "Unless you want to end up like Ashton, you have to stay alert."

For five seconds, Desmond merely stared back at Andrew, shocked at his words. Then, he replied with a shaky nod of his head and walked forward, manuvering himself carefully over the dead Licker. It certainly seemed that the bond between those two have gotten stronger in the short time he had left them.

"Nicely done...!" Julian said to Andrew, in a low voice.

Andrew barked out a soft laugh at Julian's remark. "All for the sake of preserving one's sanity."

They carried on after Celine, walking down the stairs at the end of the hallway and arriving at yet another narrow hallway. No immediate danger, no rotting zombies nearby, it was as if someone deliberately came here to clear all the zombies out, and left after doing so. Either that, or, other people already came by here. Cops, definitely, and maybe some civilians. Julian only hoped that the dead bodies they saw weren't the people that came here looking for a safe place.

Through the massive parking garage and they found themselves in a zig-zag hallway which, according to Celine, lead to the prison cells. Nothing exciting to take note of, not even the trail of blood which snaked out from the door around the corner. After spending almost two days in a zombie-infested city, and seeing blood splattered everywhere, spots of blood were no longer considered interesting. However, this trail of blood still had an eerie sense about it.

"Hope it doesn't belong to the guy I'm looking for..." Celine said softly, her eyes still fixed on the deep red colour before she tore her gaze off and marched towards the prison cells.

The source of the blood lay before Julian's eyes. A man's body, sitting against the wall, his mouth froze in a screaming posture with blood bubbles clearly visible on the corners. In his chest was a gaping hole, an empty space where his heart should be. His eyes were completely blank, staring upwards into nothingness, blending into the paleness of his skin. The gruesome sight already caused Andrew to gag, but somehow Celine didn't care. She rummaged his pockets and eventually turned up a small folder.

"How the hell could you even touch a dead body...?" Desmond questioned.

"Alright, got what I came for. Now we can get the hell outta here!" Stuffing the folder into her side pocket, she headed back towards the parking garage. Julian didn't really want to stop by that door to see what could have smeared the blood along the floor in a trail, since it would obviously bad.

_Well, I'll be damned if it was actually something helpful..._ Julian thought.

It wasn't long before they managed to hard-wire a police car and crashed out of the blockade. Andrew suggested that they head on over to a hospital to do something about Desmond's wound, as it had already started to bleed again and the dressing had to be changed.

Rows and rows of destroyed buildings flew pass, all a blurry image in Celine's insanely fast driving. Julian wanted to take in a deep breath of the night air, yet he was afraid to do so. He didn't want to risk catching the illness as all others did, to turn into a flesh-eating cannibal and try to kill his friends. No, not yet, not while he still had things to do. All this time, his father's image still burned brightly in his mind. It was mostly the reason why Julian had been so determined to survive the chaos. Yes, Steven can be considered neglective, but he was still Julian's father.

He thought about what he might encounter when he reached the labs, but whatever jumped out from the darkness, Julian would be ready to deal with it.

A/N : Alright, here's where I need you guys' help. Right now I'm torn as to whether I should make Celine one of the main characters or not. If you could just say yes or no, and state the reasons for your answer, it would be extremely helpful! It also wouldn't hurt if you all could give me your opinions on Celine's character to see whether I portrayed her correctly. Thanks!


	7. Struggling Forward

Author's Note : Alright, the extremely long delay is due to my Common Tests that just finished a few days ago, and true enough, I'm definitely going to fail a couple of subjects... TT

But be assured that this isn't the end! And PLEASE, read and review, as I REALLY NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE WAY I WRITE! faints

gets back up Oh, and now disclaimers as I do NOT own Resident Evil and all its characters! faints

Chapter 7 : Struggling Forward

Again, Philip hated waiting. He didn't know why Steven's son was taking so long to come. Either he died along the way, or he was happily racing out Highway 17 by now. Unlikely, but there is still a possibility. Philip didn't have much time either. About a day more and he would have to hightail it out of there.

He banged his fist on the computer terminal, the rage inside him threatening to consume him. All this because of waiting for one silly boy? Philip knew better than to lose his sanity when they haven't even arrived at the main course yet. But of course, if Philip saw his own son following Steven's like a dog, he would have no choice but to give him a rather violent spanking (maybe not even by him) . Something inside him was already whispering to him, telling him things he didn't want to hear. He shook his head furiously in a vain attempt at getting rid of those voices.

His pet obviously sensed his unease, and took one lumbering step towards him. Philip impatiently gestured that he was fine, and watched as his pet moved gracefully back into position. More than once, Philip found himself gazing at his pet in awe, amazed by what he himself had done to craft such a marvellous being. This, and a little torturing of Steven, was all he had to soothe his nerves.

Thinking about his collegue, Philip glanced back at the monitors, pin-pointing out the screen that showed Steven. He walked up to the monitor and narrowed his eyes to block out the glare. Steven was sitting up against the wall, slowly nibbling at the ration bar that Philip threw at him in mercy. He wouldn't want Steven to die before Philip was done with him.

Meanwhile, he checked all the other details, making sure that the locks on the doors in the compound would lead Steven's snivelling son straight into that room. Of course, he would leave a few other doors unlocked to make it less suspicious. It was definitely going to be a blast.

Everything appeared to be fine -- no minor or major malfunctions, no hinderences, hallways devoid of life. For some reason, Philip now felt like some kind of crazy villian in a cheap horror novel, constantly laughing hideously with absolutely no sanity left in his mind. But this was different. Philip didn't consider himself insane, just that he needed to deal justice to the appropiate people in the appropiate manner.

He had a reason for his actions, and if he has a reason, he isn't insane.

_It will all be worth it..._ Philip thought.

And with a loud sigh, he turned away from the blinking monitors and continued to admire his creation.

Steven, however, was having a totally different time. He sat up against the wall and munched at the little ration bar in his hand. Not much, but considering Philip's state of mind, this had to be a miracle. Now, every breath he took shot a fresh new sense of pain into his body.

His face was covered in bruises and all bloodied up, with a black eye to complete the picture. One of his ankles was probably twisted, but he managed to wrap it up in some cloth, so it should be alright after some rest. A broken rib was the cause of his difficult breathing, and two clean cuts decorated his abdomen. The bleeding had stopped, but it was obvious that he still felt like shit.

Right now, all Steven was doing was waiting for the inevitable to arrive. To see Julian crash in through the door, his face beaming with joy, only to see it disappear in an instant by whatever traps Philip could have set; to see Philip vent out his limitless anger on a poor boy, all in front of Steven's eyes, and he wouldn't be able to do a single thing to stop it. He could not lose Julian, not like this.

Steven threw his head back and shouted, his voice echoeing down the hallways. When he was done, he only felt slightly better at releasing the pressure inside. In his heart, the emotional tides still remained. He lowered his head, watched as his tears started dripping down onto his pants, as he listened to his own sobbing. Silently, he prayed.

"Oh Lord, please protect my son... Please..."

**X-------X-------X**

_An empty house, fully-furnished, everything shining and gleaming in the morning sun. He stood there, in the main hall, looking all around, then towards the main door. _

_What was missing? _

_A breeze blew in from an open window, blowing several napkins off the dining table which came to rest at his feet._

_They had blood on them._

_A colourful corridor of a school. The blue lockers all clean and free from vandalism. He walked silently down the corridor, glancing sideways and inspecting the lockers. There were 3 lockers missing from their position, all 3 of them side-by-side. He bent forward, wanting a closer look, and saw the names "Desmond Watt" and "Andrew Jacobs" inscribed on the wall where the missing lockers at the side would be. The middle section of the wall remained clean._

_Just then, something started to appear in that very section of the wall. It came slowly, and he leaned in even closer, heart racing._

_And the school bell rung. He stumbled backwards, tearing his eyes from the wall and looking back down the hallway, towards one of the classroom doors._

_Blood was coming out from underneath._

_A grey hallway, completely devoid of anything. No doors, no pillars, no people. Just, an empty, grey hallway. He trembled, suddenly feeling the urge to run forward and scream for help, for anyone._

_Then, a door materialized from the wall beside him, a sliding door. It had three gashes on it._

_He stepped through, into another grey room. There was nothing different -- no furniture whatsoever, just grey walls. But he noticed something WAS different, and he felt his fears beginning to take hold of him, consume him._

_His father was lying on the floor, in the middle of the room, in a puddle of blood. His face was frozen in fear, pain, anguish, staring up to him with a pair of lifeless eyes._

_Suddenly, his father's mouth moved, or twitched. A nightmarish whisper rose from his lips._

_He just stood there, unable to do anything, as the words floated into his ears. "Julian..."_

_"Help me..."_

Julian opened his eyes, breathing heavily. At first, everything around him seemed blurry. Then, he realized that it was only a drop of sweat which got into his eyes. He wiped his sweaty face with his sleeve and sat up straight.

_Not a very good time to be having a bad dream, huh... _He thought, as he recalled the nightmare he had just moments ago, the images still burning brightly into his mind. Was it an omen? It couldn't be, otherwise his father is already...

"Ouch! Hey go easy will ya?" It was Desmond's voice. Julian turned to see Celine glaring back at him.

"If I went easy, you would still be bleeding your guts out by now... Bite it." She demanded, and went back to stitching the wound. Her strong attitude and personality, with a soft side as well, seemed to be untouched by anything. Or maybe, it was this outbreak which gave her that distinct quality. Julian couldn't be sure, but he was betting on the latter.

Along the way, Celine noticed that Desmond's wound was still bleeding, so she decided to take a detour to the hospital. And here they were now, loitering around in the doctors' station as Celine continued to sew the wound. Apparently, there was more to Celine than meets the eye. Judging by the graceful and smooth movement of her hands, it seemed that she had done this sort of thing before. Who knew how many wounds she patched up?

_Or how many dead bodies she's seen..._ A frightening thought. Julian didn't exactly want to think that they've been travelling with a serial killer. It wouldn't help with the group morale.

"Hey, you alright? Looking kinda pale..." Andrew poked at his shoulder. Julian turned and saw him looking down at him, still holding the hefty shotgun in his hands.

Julian barked out a laugh. "Well, that's cause' you look like you're about to blow my head off with that shotgun..." Several seconds of seeing a look of confusion on Andrew's face and Julian couldn't help but laugh further. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Just had a bad dream, that's all."

"Huh, tell me about it. We're all having bad dreams too. Who wouldn't?" Andrew trailed off, looking disturbed. Maybe he did have a nightmare too, probably about himself, or even about his family.

_But his family is not even in Raccoon, so nothing could possibly happen to them. Lucky for him..._

Julian got up from the bench and walked around the room. They did meet a few zombie doctors and nurses both inside and outside the hospital, but 3 handguns and a shotgun solved their problems, grotesquely and loudly. Celine found a first aid kit under one of the tables and they decided to settle in the spacious room for some much-needed rest.

Peering into the glass shelves, various medicine bottles and labels greeted his eyes. He couldn't really understand most of these names, except for Panadol and Penicilin. After some thought, he took a small packet of Panadol and placed it into his pocket. Who knows when it might be useful?

It wasn't long before Celine was done stitching up the wounds on both of Desmond's arms (although he was still complaining about the pain). They gathered up their stuff and proceeded back down to the first floor.

The hospital had been a total mess when they arrived. All the zombie doctors and nurses did nothing but further added to their worries. Inside, several benches were overturned, memos from notice boards were either torn or lying on the ground, some with blood smeared on them. Blood, there was so much blood everywhere, more than Julian could tolerate. In each of the rooms, there was either blood on the floor or on the beds.

_It must've been horrifying for those doctors, _Julian thought. _So desperate to save the patient's life, only to be rewarded with a bite in their necks..._

Julian never liked hospital rooms anyway, the way the rooms are placed, all in two long rows. The wards themselves were unusually small too. One could easily suffer from massive claustrophobia just by sitting inside. He peered into one of the wards along the way, and saw a motionless body on the bed.

It had once been a woman. Her face was completely pale and blank, her mouth slightly open, with a line of blood trailing down the side of her mouth. Perhaps the most disgusting sight of all was her stomach. It had been ripped open. All her guts were spilled out onto the bed, some were floating on the floor in a puddle of blood. Julian felt his own stomach churn violently before turning his head away, not wanting to get any more gruesome images in his head.

They stepped out into the night, away from the excruciating smell of dried blood. Celine pondered for a while before speaking up.

"I'll drop the 3 of you outside this compound Julian told me about." She hesitated, then continued. "I have to go to the university. There're some things I have to find out..." She cast a wary glance at Julian when she finished.

_Oh yeah, I forgot to tell her about that Alyssa Ashcroft. How the heck did she know that this Alyssa was at the university?_ Julian wondered, but decided to push it aside. No point worrying in something like that. Celine probably had her own way of finding out about certain things.

The drive to the compound was a silent one. Julian kept staring out of the window, thinking about all that had happened. Ashton's death, bumping into Celine, the battle with the Reacher, the close encounter with that Crimson Head zombie. So many things had happened in a mere time span of two days. He hoped that nothing more will happen till they get out of the city, alive.

Finally, the 3 of them got out of the car and faced the building. On the wall was written, in big bold letters, "Umbrella Research Sector". The entire area was still lit, its fluorescent lights shooting rays of light into the night sky.

Julian turned back to the car, to Celine. "Guess this is where we go our separate ways."

"Yeah." Celine repeated. "Watch your back..."

"You too." Julian said. With that, Celine did a U-turn and drove off into the night. There was still some things he had to say to her, but the words just wouldn't come out. It wouldn't matter anyway, Celine had her own troubles to take care of. Julian could only wish her a silent '"Good luck.".

He turned back to Andrew and Desmond, ignoring the ghostly moaning floating back into his ears. "Alright, I know this is gonna sound stupid, but we'll have to split up since it's such a big place. Andrew, you know the layout of this compound too right?"

Andrew narrowed his eyes for a moment. "Err, yeah, kinda."

"Good, then you should know about the train station underneath the compound." Julian didn't feel comfortable. Nothing about this did. But if they were going to live past tonight, he would have to find his father quickly, and have a fast way to get out of the city as well. "You and Desmond go and see if you can get it up and running. We may need to have a fast escape. I'll meet up with you both after I've found my father."

Both gave a slight nod of their head. Julian nodded back, then the 3 proceeded into the reception room and, after a brief exchange of "Be careful"s, split up accordingly.

Julian watched as the shadows of his friends disappeared around the corner, then turned and proceeded through the glass doors and down the metallic corridor. The absence of anything, even zombies and mutated creatures, put Julian's senses on high alert. The eerie silence made him glance back over his shoulder repeatedly. Someone was watching him, he just knew it.

But the question was : Who?

A room was left open, on his left. When Julian walked closer, he realized that it was left open simply because the door was resting against the wall in the back of the room. The hinges on the door was clearly yanked away, and was completely bent as it hung on the doorway.

_What the heck could do such a thing like this?_ Several images of deadly monsters flashed across Julian's mind. He took a step into the room, looking around it to see if there were any clues, and his foot kicked something on the ground. It slid and rattled across the floor, something grey and small. Julian picked it up, and froze in horror.

It was a simple handphone, broken beyond repair, but the initials "S.L." was more than enough to set Julian's mind off. His father had been here, in this very room, but the fact that his father's own personal handphone lay broken here, suggested an entirely different story.

Julian couldn't bear to think anymore. He dropped the broken device, turned, and ran out the doorway. He continued running down the hallway, completely unsure of where to go.

Through windless hallways and numerous sliding doors, Julian finally skidded to a halt beside a particular door, and as he stared at it, a fresh new wave of fear overwhelmed his entire body.

It was just a door, yes, but it had 3 deep gashes in it.

His mouth dropped open, and his eyes grew wide with terror. It was just like in his dream, the image of his dead, or dying, father suddenly coming back, filling his entire mind. He wanted to step through, but he just couldn't bring himself to. What if his dream became real?

He remained rooted to the spot for several seconds. Then, after thinking that standing there wouldn't get him anywhere, he took a deep breath, and walked into the room.

Even though he had expected it, he still didn't believe what he saw. And as he ran up to his father's limb body, tears running down his cheeks, he suddenly realized how much he still loved his father, despite constantly being so far apart.

"Dad! Dad, please, say something! Oh my God..." Julian fell to his knees, shaking his father's body.

Steven slowly opened his eyes. He stared at Julian, then spoke up, voice weak but calm. "Julian...! You have to g-get out of here. Not safe. He's..." Steven began to cough violently.

"What? Who is 'he'?"

"Don't need to know, just- GAH!" Steven gave a yelp as something small and silver shot into his neck, and almost immediately fainted.

Julian whirled around towards the shooter, but felt something puncture his neck, pumping a liquid into his system which made him very, very sleepy. He could only make out a blurry figure standing in the doorway, before blacking out completely.

**X-------X-------X**

"How are your arms doing?" Andrew slowed down, his legs beginning to ache again from the long running.

Desmond paused, drops of sweat trickling down his face. The bandages around his arms still remained perfectly white, a sign as to how effective Celine's handiwork was. "Fine, Celine patched it up nicely, though it still stings now and then."

"Good, wouldn't want it to open up again…" Andrew trailed off. It was funny, he hadn't known Celine for more than two hours, and already he began to miss having her around as well.

He turned his attention back to the hallways. If his memory hadn't failed him, he should be coming up on the emergency stairs soon. The unchanging scenery, however, gave him his doubts, lots of it.

But he shouldn't let the environment get the better of him, not now. They were going to leave the city soon, away from all the chaos and destruction, and have a shot at life again. All three of them would find somewhere secluded to live, in case any annoying reporters came to bother them, or any Umbrella officials wanted to ask them silly questions. All would be normal again. Everything.

An exclamation from Desmond snapped him out of his day-dreaming, and he stopped dead, right in front of a sliding door. Apparently, he was so engrossed in his fantasy that he almost walked smacked into the door itself.

"Hey, Andrew, are you alright? You seem a bit occupied…" Desmond asked between pants.

"I'm fine, just a bit deep in thought." Andrew said. Maybe 'deep in thought' wasn't the right term to use after all. "Anyways, we're in luck. This is the door we're looking for."

The sign on the side of the door read 'To Train – Authorized Personnel Only', and Andrew never thought it was going to get so easy. That is, until he saw the silvery piece of metal inserted neatly into the side of the door.

_Who the heck puts a card reader on a door which almost everyone uses!_ Andrew thought. _But then again, not everyone working in this area is an official Umbrella employee._

Cursing silently, he turned to Desmond, figuring out carefully what to say. "Okay, here's the thing. It might sound a bit stupid but it's the only plan I got."

Desmond stared at him, obviously expecting the worse possible plan.

"The main office is not far from here. I'm going to go see if I can find anything there that we can use. Meanwhile, I'm afraid that you're going to have to stay here…" Andrew trailed off.

However, surprisingly, Desmond simply nodded. He looked scared, definitely, but he was doing a damn good job at not letting it get the better of him.

Andrew sighed. "I won't take long."

"You better not. Be careful." Desmond replied.

Andrew turned and took off down the hallway. Desmond was right, he would have to be quick. There was no knowing what could spring out suddenly from the dark corners. With Desmond still in his present condition, and not knowing how Julian was doing, the chances of things going wrong was literally sky-high.

**X-------X-------X**

A/N : Ok i know that I only got ONE review about whether or not Celine should be made a main character, and that review said yes. So i'm basing this ENITRELY on that one review. And since Celine is nowa main character, she'll be coming back in the next chapter.

But i stand by what i said...PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! faints...again


	8. Recollections of the Past

Author's Note : Hey y'all! I am so sorry to take so long to put this chapter in, as you can see how long it is... I hope the length can compensate for any frustrations you have experienced!

Disclaimers? Well, I do not own Resident Evil, or any of the characters from the AppleSeed movie (I'm referring to the most recent one, not the super-long-time-ago one) . Did anyone watch that? Great movie. and if you DID watch it, then it would be pretty obvious the name that I took from there...

Also, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! As any typical reviewer would say, I LIVE AND BREATH REVIEWS!

Ok, enough about this, read on and enjoy!

Chapter 8 : Recollections of the Past

"_Hey, Celine!" Briareos called out. "Got a lead as to where your sister is!"_

_Celine could barely contain a smile. She ran over to where Briareos was standing, in front of his computer and gesturing impatiently. After so many weeks of continuous searching, they finally managed to pin-point her sister's location._

_It worried her. Umbrella kept looking for her sister, which made it necessary for her to constantly be on the run. Celine tried to trail behind, so as to not lose her completely, but with Umbrella blocking her path numerous times, she finally had to give up, letting her sister disappear into the world._

_But now, she could see her sister again. After so many weeks, they would be able to take Umbrella on. Together._

_Celine snapped out of her day-dreaming and turned to Briareos. "Great! Where is she?"_

"_Err…" Briareos looked back down to the computer screen. "It says that she last checked into a hotel somewhere in…" He began furiously typing at it the keyboard._

"'_Err'? You haven't even read the entire thing yet?" Celine asked, tapping her foot impatiently._

"_Course not! I wanted you to be the first one to know this." Briareos proudly claimed._

"_Um, moving on…" Briareos continued. "As I was saying earlier, she last checked into a hotel in…… Raccoon City!"_

_Celine shot a look of confusion at Briareos. "Raccoon? What the heck would she be doing in some secluded city such as Raccoon?"_

_Briareos put a hand to his chin. "Beats me. At least now you have a… Hey! You leaving already!"_

_Celine stopped and turned back, smiling. "Of course. I'll give a call when I need a pick up! I'm going to take the bus this time…" She sighed at this. Buses, in her opinion, were kind of disgusting – what with snoring people and horny old guys, Celine always dreaded having to take bus trips._

_Ignoring a bark of laughter from Briareos, Celine continued down the hall. She had a funny feeling inside though, as if she was walking away from all her companions forever._

_No, she thought. This job will be nothing but a walk in the park…_

Celine opened her eyes. Her vision was a bit blurred, and her head was slightly spinning. She narrowed her eyes, trying to remember what happened. She was still in the car, that's for sure, since the airbag was shot straight up her nose.

_The…airbag? That must mean…_

The car engine was smoking, a lamppost neatly embedded into the front of the car. At this sight, she began to recall what had happened. Something had darted across the road, something HUGE, looking almost humanoid in shape, which caused her to swerve into the lamppost.

As soon as she remembered that, she immediately whipped out her handgun, feebly trying to push away the airbag from her face. What was it exactly that dashed across the road? The university was nearby, she would have to be on her top guard if that thing, whatever it was, had made the university its home.

She stumbled across the empty road, still dazed from the accident. Quickly regaining her sense of direction, she began a slight jog in that direction, and soon found herself standing before a massive building. The Raccoon University, its famous clock tower towering high above the mist, probably a sign of hope. Celine grunted. She wasn't one for literature stuff, let alone see something in a totally different light.

Celine put her hand on the knob, embedded into a large, oak door, and turned it. The door creaked open, and in this kind of silent night, she felt as if the noise had alerted anything within a five mile radius. Stepping inside, she breathed in the familiar scent of polished furniture and perfumed carpets. She only came here once, but she stayed long enough to vaguely remember the layout. The reason of her sister being here still eluded Celine.

It was either bad luck, or Celine just dropped in at the wrong time. Shortly after she had arrived at Raccoon, the outbreak occurred. People eating other people, animals going mad, scenery becoming ten times bloodier, she had to exploit every single skill she had and use it to the max in order to survive.

When she made it to the Apple Inn, it was as bleak as the rest of the city. The building loomed out into the night sky, sending cold shivers down Celine's back. Checking the register in the front lobby, Celine noted her sister's room number and ran through the double doors. She had to quicken her pace, for the loud chugging of a faulty machine coming from the boiler room suggested that it wasn't going to hold. However, her sister's room was empty – no notes, no clues, nothing. Her sister definitely did well in covering her tracks.

And now, out of pure luck, she picked up her sister's tracks again, leading her to this building. Slowly, cautiously, she began walking up the stairs in the middle of the grand hall. She always liked starting from the higher floors, it was something Alyssa and herself inherited from their mother – to always begin from the top. There was only one door at the top, tucked into the corner. Through the door, a faint banging sound could be heard. She inhaled deeply and opened it.

The first sound that greeted her was a desperate moan. Instantly, she kicked the door wide open and trained her handgun straight ahead. The zombie had already begun shuffling towards her, skeletal hands outstretched and yearning. Thing is, its fingers and mouth were stained with blood, fresh blood, judging by the drops of blood dripping down from its mouth, leaving big, red spots in the carpet flooring.

_Huh, must've struck some other fellow…_ Celine thought, as she pulled the trigger. The gun shook in her hand, and the zombie collapsed onto the floor without a sound. Sighing, she side-stepped the body and carried on down the hall. Around the corner, was another wandering zombie which had apparently heard the gunshot, and was almost within lunging distance when Celine turned the corner, before it collapsed to the ground, two new holes in its face.

Celine breathed out slowly through her mouth. Zombies in the university? This would make her search even harder. She glanced towards the left door and saw long, thin lines of blood smudged onto the wood. Looking down to the zombie she just shot, Celine noted that it also had blood-stained fingers.

_So, the zombies were banging on this door, eh? That means…_

Celine was already through the door before finishing her thought. Inside, the room was lavishly furnished. Sofas and tables were arranged neatly against the wall across her. Paintings of various scenery decorated the other walls, and a statue bust lay to her right.

Still, a faint trail of blood could be seen snaking towards the other door. Celine stepped forward and pushed it open.

She wasn't even sure what had overwhelmed her as soon as she stepped into the room. She froze for only a second, before dashing over and kneeled down onto the carpet, bursting into tears as her knees slammed onto the soft carpet. She couldn't help it. She simply buried her face into her hands, and cried.

For several minutes, she cried over the corpse of her sister.

Clad in a full red shirt and pants, Alyssa lay on the ground, motionless, a combat knife pierced cleanly into one of her eyes. Despite such a painful death, her face was calm, not showing any form of fear. Her leg, however, was badly injured. Deep gashes and tears in her left shin with a distinct bite mark on her right ankle. The carpet flooring had absorbed the blood, leaving behind a big, round, crimson-coloured patch around Alyssa's body.

The blood on the doors, the bite marks on Alyssa's legs, the knife in her face. It all made sense to Celine now. Alyssa was attacked by the zombies outside, and got her leg bitten. Then, in order to prevent herself from turning into one of those things, she took the knife and ended her own life.

Celine sobbed quietly. She had to acknowledge her sister's act. To free herself from the suffering, to save others from herself, she killed herself. Alyssa was the only person Celine knew who would do such a thing. This meant that her search for her sister has ended. What was she going to tell Briareos and the others? Celine clenched her fist. She was going to avenge her sister's death, by taking out Umbrella.

Umbrella had taken almost everything away from her. They killed her parents when they were young, mostly because her parents were also newspaper reporters, and had stuck their nose too deep into Umbrella's property, gathering much evidence about their forbiddened researches. In the middle of the night, they stormed her house. Her parents shoved them into a trapdoor located in their closet, and attempted to fight off the intruders the best they could. Celine could never forget the continuous sound of gunfire, her mother's screaming, and her father's shouts of rage. In a matter of minutes, everything went silent. Celine and her sister lay frightened, shivering in the cold confined space, until the sound of heavy footsteps died away, followed by the revving of a car engine.

They slowly came out of the closet, out into the room that had once been their bedroom. Bullet-holes decorated the walls, tables, and the bed, its feathers still floating around in the room. The door was also riddled with bullet-holes and hung on its hinges. Alyssa whimpered slightly, only to be quietly comforted by Celine. Alyssa was only two years younger than Celine, so she was indirectly charged with her safety.

Down the stairs and into the living room, was where the bodies of their parents lay in pools of their own blood. While Alyssa let out a scream and burst into tears, Celine merely stared at her parents' corpse. Covered in a sticky, red substance, the look on their parents' faces was that of anger, fear, and of course, sadness. From that moment on, it became permanently etched in Celine's mind – the horrible nature of Umbrella and their merciless doings.

Years flew by as they moved from one foster home to another. Celine could not adapt to the new environments, and neither could Alyssa, creating problems for the families they shared homes with, finally ending with them bailing out. When both of them came of age, Celine bumped into Briareos and his team. It was then that Celine's and Alyssa's life took a huge turn.

Briareos's led a small team against Umbrella, fishing out any possible evidence and thwarting their researches by any possible means. Celine was only 20 and Alyssa, 18, when they wanted in. Despite Briareos's reluctance to let teenagers into the group, he finally accepted, seeing how determined these two girls were.

Celine went through training while Alyssa stuck strictly to computer work. Within a short period of time, Celine's skill with guns increased ten-fold, fueled by her hatred against Umbrella. Everything went smoothly, their missions were simply and thorough, no casualties or injuries. That was, until Alyssa stirred up the hive by mistake. She was detected by Umbrella while trying to hack into one of their restricted files, and decided to leave the group for their safety.

Now, here she lay, pale but peaceful, on the floors of the Raccoon University. Alyssa was gone, Umbrella had finally taken away the one thing Celine had held so desperately on to, and it would be the final straw. As long as there was a single breath of air in her body, she would not stop hunting Umbrella down. Whether it would be sabotaging Umbrella's devices, or assassinating their directors one by one, she didn't care. As long as Umbrella suffers, she would be happy.

"Rest…rest in peace, sister." Celine mumbled in between sobs. She slowly lifted her head back up and noticed that there was a white piece of paper in Alyssa's right hand. Carefully, she removed it from Alyssa's death grip and flattened it on the floor. It was written in Alyssa's handwriting, clearly, and despite a few bloodstains, it was still readable.

_I managed to find the cure to the T-virus, the very thing that has destroyed this entire city. The zombies outside have trapped me in this room. I don't think I will have enough time or the energy to make it to the incubator. Already, I can feel the virus flowing in my veins, eating away at my body._

_I have obtained the last ingredient required to complete the Daylight. The first two had cost both George's and Yoko's lives, and now this final ingredient is going to cost my own. I cannot stand it anymore. I will not become one of those things._

_Celine, if you're reading this, if you've come to find me, I'm very sorry for letting you down. I couldn't keep my promise of taking down Umbrella together. Everything rests in your hands now, all you have to do is get to the incubator on the 3rd floor. Everything else has already been prepared._

_Do not worry, I will tell Mum and Dad of your achievements._

_I will forever be with you, Celine Ashcroft…_

A single teardrop fell onto the paper as Celine read it with watery eyes.

_Thank you, Alyssa, _Celine prayed. She was proud of her sister, and would not let her death be in vain.

She reached into one of Alyssa's pockets and pulled out a small, metallic capsule, inside which held a deep red substance. Not wanting to question what it was exactly, she chucked it into her own pocket and stood up. Taking one last look at her sister's body, Celine silently said another 'Thank you'. Then, turning around, ran out the door.

_Incubator on the 3rd floor eh? _Celine thought as she darted back into the long corridor. _Don't worry, Alyssa. I'll get this done. For you…_

However, it seems that the Gods weren't going to give her a smooth ride. As soon as she turned the corner, the wall behind her smashed open, throwing her clean off her feet and landing face first onto the floor. If it weren't for the carpeting, her front teeth would have broken off her gums.

Craning her neck, she turned around. The dust settled shortly after, and Celine found herself facing a monstrosity that she has never seen before. The very sight of its immense size froze her heard heart in fear.

Standing 9-foot tall and wearing nothing but a black underwear, the monster focused its eyes onto Celine. Its shoulders were unusually broad and tough, and its tree-trunk legs only added to its beastly atmosphere. An eight-pack was clearly visible on its abdomen, and short but sharp claws glittered where its fingernails should be. Both of its hands were blackened, as if held over a fire for a long time.

_Holy shit, that's……that's a Tyrant…! _Celine screamed in her mind, flashbacks of what Briareos told her about Umbrella. Conducting viral research and forbidden experiments? This was completely different from all that she has seen.

Still unable to believe that she's staring at a merciless killing machine, the product of a corrupt company, Celine kicked into gear almost instantly. She rolled to her side, the Tyrant's hand shooting past her a mere second later, its claws penetrating deep into the wood. She whirled back and swung both her legs at it consecutively, kicking the Tyrant in its face, twice. It staggered only a step back, giving Celine enough time to scramble to a safe distance. However, it seemed that the Tyrant didn't always have to use its clawed hands to attack, for it grabbed the nearby shelf and effortlessly flung it straight to Celine, who tried to dodge it, but in the narrow passageway, she could only move a step to the side before her shoulder collided with the wall. As a result, the shelf knocked hard against her right shoulder before crashing into the ground behind her.

Throbbing with pain in her shoulder, Celine knew that she was no match against this thing. Her only option was to try and outrun it. She quickly spun around and ran straight for the door. A whoosh of air was heard from behind, and the Tyrant came crashing down directly between her and the door, effectively blocking off her only escape route.

_Persistent son of a bitch, eh? I'm not going to lose to the likes of YOU!_

Celine leapt backwards as the Tyrant swung its muscular leg at her, who proceeded to half-run, half-shoot at it. The bullets peppered into its chest, but it seemed to have no effect. It only held the Tyrant back long enough for Celine to dart into the second door in the hallway. She found herself in some kind of art gallery, full of glass displays and even a grand piano lay to her right. There wasn't time, however, for her to admire the beauty of art, for a clawed maniac was closing in on her, fast. She caught a glimpse of the Tyrant from the corner of her eye, and ducked low to the left. The Tyrant came crashing into the room, knocking the door off its hinges and sending it across the room.

_Come on Celine, think! You've gotta trap it somehow…_

The answer to her prayers lay at the back of the room. A large, marble statue stood against the wall, its head almost touching the roof, and as Celine barely avoided another of the Tyrant's attacks, the plan was already formulating in her mind. She opened fire at the base of the statue, while running to the side of the room at the same time. Just like she predicted, the Tyrant came charging back at her, but its lumbering size and weight worked to Celine's advantage, and she gracefully side-stepped out of the way. Celine then took position right in front of the statue, could already hear the cracking of its marble legs from the mantelpiece.

_Come to daddy, you motherfucka…!_

The Tyrant stared at her for a second, and charged ahead with full speed. Celine leapt to the side and rolled, causing more pain to swell up in her injured shoulder. Her plan had worked. The Tyrant had swiped downwards at her, thus chipping away a large piece of the statue near the base, causing it to come crashing down, pinning the Tyrant under its heavy weight.

Celine wanted to congratulate herself, pat herself on her own back for performing such a task, but already the statue was shifting, its pinned victim struggling to get out. She jumped back onto her feet, and ran out the room.

**X-------X-------X**

A lone zombie moaned to itself, stumbling its way around the room. It did not have the knowledge of how to avoid obstacles, let alone know what it's walking into. Its legs kicked aside bins and folders, crunched up papers that were strewn onto the floor and goodness knows what else it did, as it slowly walked in circles around the room.

It felt so hungry. It wanted to some nice, warm food fast. The very thought of blood sent long trails of drool down the zombie's mouth, spilling onto the floor in a disgusting, slimy sound.

Something rattled in the room, arousing the zombie out of its fantasy. It turned towards the door, its handle rattling once again. Then, there was silence, followed by a loud grunt and a crash. The door flew open, and the zombie only caught a glimpse of its meal before its entire vision went black. It collapsed to the floor, blood oozing out of where its head had once been.

Andrew lowered his shotgun and screwed up his face as soon as the smell hit him. That zombie must have been loitering around in the room for quite a long time, as the entire room smelt worse than shit. Still, he was going to have to tolerate it. Who knows what could have been attracted by that loud shotgun blast.

_More zombies, dead dogs, Hunters… _Andrew thought, remembering that fateful night when Ashton saved all of them from several Hunters, but at the cost of his own humanity and sanity. _The list goes on…_

He truly felt sorry for Ashton. They hadn't known him as well as Desmond did, but long enough to know that he was a good friend. Ashton did not deserve that kind of death – to lose his sanity, and then be killed by his own friends.

Breaking his thoughts from Ashton, Andrew proceeded to yank drawers clean out from shelves and dump them onto the floor, rummaging through for any sign of a square piece of metal. Documents, files, stationary, everything but the one thing he needed. After ransacking through the entire room, he stood up straight, breathing heavily. He glanced around the room. Had he missed something? The keycard should've been in here. After all, this IS one of the main offices. It was then did he notice something strange.

At the far end of the room, a single painting hung against the wall. It portrayed a beautiful scenery of the beach, reminding Andrew of what he can do after getting out of this hell-hole.

_Why is there only one painting in this whole room?_ Andrew thought, walking up to it. He placed his hand on it, and it felt completely normal. But when he tugged at the corners of the painting, it actually slid off to the side. Shocked but amazed, Andrew continued pulling it at the corner, until the entire painting was moved aside, showing a square-shaped door with a knob on it.

One shotgun blast later, Andrew pulled the safe open through its new hole. Inside, lying beside a bunch of papers, was the keycard that he had been looking for. He snatched it and dashed back out of the room, completely unaware of the security camera overhead.

Back at the train station entrance, Desmond shivered slightly as he leaned against the metal door. Perhaps he was feeling cold, or perhaps it was the stress and anxiety that was already getting to him. It didn't matter now. Andrew had said he would be right back, and soon after, Desmond heard two loud blasts echoing down the hallway, unmistakably from Andrew's shotgun.

He knew Andrew isn't the type of person to make false promises. On many occasions, Andrew had fulfilled his promises at the very last minute, even if it had seemed hopeless to Desmond or Julian. Sometimes, he was even putting his own pride on the line. Desmond wondered: He had known Andrew for many years, but why is he remembering all this only now? It could simply be that when placed in a tight situation, it strips everyone down to their true self – Desmond had read about it, in a book called "I'm the King of the Castle".

Desmond glanced back towards the hallway at the sound of hurried footsteps approaching. Moments later, Andrew's figure came into a view. He was sweating slightly, and in his hand, much to Desmond's delight, was the small keycard they needed.

"Took you long enough! What were those two shots I heard?" Desmond inquired.

"Well, there was a zombie in the room, and then I had to decorate the wall a bit to get to this little bugger." Andrew explained, smirking.

Not wanting to know further, Desmond stood up and moved aside. He watched as Andrew stepped forward and slid the card into its reader. It emitted a loud 'DING!' and the door slid open, revealing stairs which lead down into the darkness. Desmond let out a sigh, and pulled out the flashlight he had taken from the minimart a couple of days ago. Andrew did the same, and together, they descended the steps cautiously.

The air was completely still and it was stuffy as hell, causing Desmond to cough occasionally. Obviously, nobody had come into the station in quite some time. When they reached the end of the long flight of stairs, a row of ticket counters greeted their eyes, in which they gracefully leapt over the gates. Finally, they entered a massive room, but it was still too dark to see anything, much less see how high the ceiling was.

"Hold on, I think the switches are here somewhere…" Andrew trailed off, as he shone his flashlight towards the small room beside them. He ran ahead and opened the door. Seconds later, a loud buzzing of electricity was heard as the powerful fluorescent lamps lit up, causing Desmond shielded his eyes as he looked around.

There, right in the middle of the room, was the huge Umbrella train. Somehow, it appeared to gleam and shine in the light, indicating that it probably had not been touched by the unclean hands of the undead. The tracks ran ahead into another dark tunnel, into their long awaited freedom. Desmond had a sudden urge to just get into the train and leave, but there was Julian. He could never think of leaving one of his best friends behind.

Andrew spent a little while in the min-office before coming back out. "Ok, I checked and everything seems to be in working order. All we have to do is get on board, start up the engine, and then wait for Julian and his father to come."

Desmond nodded his head in agreement and followed Andrew to the front-most carriage. Desmond looked towards the train windows. It was dark inside the train, and the light from overhead could only allow him to see that much. He followed the windows all the way until the end of the second carriage, and froze. There was a huge hole on the roof of the third carriage, and as Desmond shifted his eyes to one of the windows, he thought he saw something moving inside.

Repeated pants from Andrew made him tear his gaze from the window. Whatever it was moving inside, they would've have to check it out later. Desmond saw that the door into the carriage was firmly closed, and Andrew himself could barely open it. He stepped forward to help, but just as he placed his hands onto the side of the door, a loud crash sounded in the entire room. Both of them whirled around, weapons ready, just as a massive, hulking creature landed right in between them and the flight of stairs they just took.

By just looking at it struck fear and rage into Desmond's heart. The four-legged creature in front of them bore resemblance to the monster that had attacked Ashton, had transformed him into a monstrosity. Its brain was clearly visible, pulsating on its head. Two rows of sharp teeth lined its huge mouth, as clouds of hot, fetid breath floated out from inside the gaping hole. It snarled, and as it did, an extremely long, pink tongue shot out from its mouth, swinging in the air and flinging drops of drool everywhere. However, this one was much bigger and much more menacing. Its skin was no longer the same shade of pink that Desmond remembered, but had a much darker shade, as well as patches of brown skin, making it look as if it was burned. Its back was rippled, and Desmond realized that it was actually the creature's spinal cord. On all four of its legs, reflecting the bright light, were one-foot long claws that clicked against the floor as it moved towards them. All in all, it looked like a behemoth.

Andrew yelled something, but Desmond didn't need to hear what it was to know. He immediately dashed off to the left as Andrew ran to the right, fresh new adrenaline pumping throughout his body. As soon as he was out of the Behemoth's attacking range, he began firing his handgun. A second set of loud blasts indicated that Andrew was unloading his shotgun on it as well.

9mm bullets and shotgun rounds peppered into the Behemoth's body, but it simply stood there, looking left and right as if taking its time to choose its prey.

_All the better for us… _Desmond thought, as he continued pulling the trigger.

All of a sudden, in one massive stride, the Behemoth leapt into the air and almost landed on top of Andrew if he hadn't ducked to the side. It shot its tongue out towards him, but he managed to stop it from penetrating his skin by using his shotgun. With the Behemoth's tongue wrapped neatly around Andrew's shotgun, both of them engaged in a tug-of-war.

"Could use some help here!" Andrew yelled, almost losing his grip on the shotgun. He gave a heave and yanked the shotgun towards him a little more, trying to buy some time for Desmond.

Desmond's handgun clicked on empty, and he hastily reloaded it, looking around the room for anything useful. The train itself, the small office, the stairway, a few iron pipes on the ground in the corner. There was nothing which would seem the smallest bit useful.

Andrew shouted. Desmond turned his head back, only to see Andrew's body crash straight into a pile of rubber tubes, effectively entangling around his body in a complete mess. He was just about to fire into the creature's head when he saw it, shining in the light across from where he was, and partially blocked by the Behemoth's hulking body.

Barrels filled with methane gas, the flammable sign clearly painted on it in red.

An idea instantly sparked in his brain, a relatively crazy one as well. He would have to strain his already healing wounds in order to execute it successfully. He had it all planned out, the only thing left to do was actually getting to the barrels himself first.

"Andrew!" Desmond called out, seeing that he had managed to free himself from the rubber tubes. "I need you to distract him for a while!"

"Wha-What!" Andrew shouted back, already raising his shotgun.

"Just do it!" Desmond replied. He made a mad dash towards the barrels as the Behemoth lumbered after Andrew, who had begun firing again.

_Don't be locked, don't be locked, don't be locked… _Desmond prayed repeatedly in his mind, that the barrels wouldn't be locked in place by metal chains. Much to his delight, they weren't. He immediately grabbed onto the closest barrel, which stood up to his shoulders, and pulled it till the barrel fell onto its side. It was supremely heavy, despite being filled with gas, and it landed with a very loud 'thud'.

There was a sickening whipping sound, and Desmond saw that Andrew had narrowly avoided the Behemoth's whip-like tongue by a few inches. He was also fumbling around in his pockets, possibly for more ammo, which meant that…

_Damn, out of time…_

Desmond placed his foot onto the side of the barrel, and with all his might, kicked it towards the Behemoth, at the same time calling out to Andrew to 'get the hell away'. There was a good 10 feet between him and the creature, and the barrel was rolling quite slowly. Seeing this, Desmond started to fire into the creature's back.

It turned, feeling the sting of the bullets in its massive hide. The Behemoth did not care about the barrel of gas rolling towards it at this very moment, it focused its mind entirely on the human which was standing at the far wall. The barrel was already at the halfway distance when it ran and jumped over it.

Desmond was ready. As soon as the Behemoth jumped into the air, he pulled the trigger while aiming at the barrel.

_BAM!_

His timing was perfect. The barrel ignited in a fiery explosion directly below the Behemoth, knocking the senses out of it and launching it even higher into the air. Desmond did not hesitate. He sped off to the side, and a few seconds later, the Behemoth came crashing down, right into the pile of barrels.

At this point, Desmond flung himself forwards and spun around in mid-air, holding his gun out with two hands to steady his aim. In that split second of concentration, he pulled the trigger as he landed hard on the floor.

Time seemed to slow down at that point. Desmond could see the bronze bullet cutting through the air, leaving a thin trail of smoke in its path. It flew towards the pile of barrels, and penetrated neatly into one of them.

In the next second, Desmond actually slid across the floor as the barrel erupted, setting off the other barrels around it, resulting in a mighty explosion that rocked the entire compound. He knocked his head against the wall as he slammed into it, and for a few seconds, could see nothing but stars as the fire continued to burn.

A minute passed, and the sprinklers finally kicked in, squirting out water and drowning the fires. In the back of his head, Desmond could faintly hear Andrew's voice.

"Hey, you alright?" Andrew said, giving Desmond a helping hand to sit up.

"Err…kinda. Just knocked my head hard, that's all…" Desmond murmured, rubbing the back of his head.

Andrew heaved a sigh of relief, then spoke again, this time in a joking manner. "How the hell did you come up with such an idea? You're pretty crazy sometimes too…"

"Come on, if I didn't think of that, we'd both be dead by now…" Desmond trailed off.

He gazed towards where the barrels once stood. Right in the middle of the blackened area, lay the two halved of the once powerful and lethal Behemoth, now reduced to two sizzling, roasted lumps of meat. It was still hard to imagine that it was him who did it, who saved both of them.

"Well, you did manage to blow up the back half of the train as well, though…" Andrew added, pointing to the last few carriages on the train. True enough, the force of the blast had wrecked the back carriages and even thrown them off the track. They would have to disconnect the front carriages from the back ones if they were ever going to move the train.

Leaning against Andrew's shoulder, Desmond slowly got up. Surprisingly, he did not suffer any severe injuries, save a few scratches and a nasty bump on his head. To this he felt some pride.

_See, guys? I'm not as hopeless as you think I am… _Desmond thought proudly, as he and Andrew slowly limped to the train.

**X-------X-------X**

A/N : Alright, I apologise for not mentioning a single thing about Julian in this chapter. That's coz i had to write that huge part for Celine, and by the time I finished the 'boss fight', the whole thing was already 12 pages long in Microsoft Word! Fret not, for I will be bringing Julian back in the next chapter (duh!) !

Oh, and...um...PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!


	9. Soul of a Tyrant

Author's Note : Whew, I can't believe that i typed all this out at ONE go... Anyways, sorry once again for the long wait! (was the wait that long? I sure hope not...) Seriously, does anyone hate college for the amount of work they give you? In Singapore, junior college (JC) TONS of homework and studying...!

Ok, no disclaimers for me. This is an original piece of work that I typed out on my own free time!

AND, once again, please Read and Review!

Chapter 9 : Soul of a Tyrant

There was a constant buzzing in Julian's ears. He groaned, his vision completely dark and his body unusually numb. He strained to open his droopy eyelids, to get even a glimpse of his surroundings.

He remembered being in the room with his father, talking to him, feeling the overwhelming sense of joy at seeing his father again. He could also never forget the look on his father's face, a cross between relief and fear. But why would his father be afraid of seeing his son again?

The thought of his father, and of getting back-stabbed by an unknown assailant, shook Julian back to his senses. Rubbing his head, he tried to get up slowly. By now his vision had partially restored, and he found himself facing the familiar dull-coloured, metallic wall. His head was still throbbing, but still good enough for him to realize that at least, he was not taken away from the compound.

A buzzing sound floated into his ears from behind him. Julian forced his aching body into motion, slowly turning around and getting into a sitting position.

"Ah, I see you've awoken at last. Didn't know a small dose of anaesthetic could knock you out for so long."

As Julian's eyes focused onto the row of computers at the end of the room, he could see a figure standing there. It was blurry at first, but what struck Julian as odd was the familiar voice.

_Have I met this person before…? Or, could he actually be…_

"You…You're not… Andrew's father, are you?" Julian stammered.

"Course I am. Seems like you haven't been keeping up with your relatives…" Philip replied, still facing the computer screens.

The truth struck Julian in his face with the force of a bomb. It was Philip who had taken his father hostage, had gotten his father injured to such a major extent. Philip, the father of his best friend. When he had known Philip in the past, he was always a kind man, extremely caring towards his only son. But now, seeing Philip standing there, against the flashing screens, he looked as if he really lost his mind, his sanity.

Julian slowly stood up, his legs shaking violently from the numb feeling. Whatever Philip had up his sleeve, it was definitely not going to be good. Philip turned around, a completely blank expression on his face. They simply stared at each other for a few seconds, before Philip spoke, in a more sinister tone.

"Julian, do you know how much your greedy father took from me?" Julian thought he spotted Philip's fist trembling slightly.

"What…what are you trying to s-?"

"He took EVERYTHING from me! That position as the Head of the Viral Research Sector should've been mine... I had the necessary materials to impress even the top figures!" Philip shouted, unable to control his anger.

Julian stood rooted to the spot. "Just because of that, you did this to him…? That's quite childish, if you think about it."

"Shut up!" Philip spat, pointing a finger at Julian. "You have no idea how much I wanted that position…"

At this point, Julian could already see the madness flashing from Philip's eyes. It was as clear as daylight. This man had gone insane over a petty promotion, but the fact that he was venting his anger out on Julian himself made him extremely nervous. He slowly inched backwards.

"Where do you think you're going? Don't you want to see my ultimate creation?"

"Yeah, sure, it'll be extremely marvelous because a madman created it…" Julian replied, sarcastically, deliberately smirking. Whatever respect he had for this man was gone somewhere between the time he woke up and where he was standing now.

The comment did pierce Philip like a needle. He grumbled loudly as he stepped back and pushed a button. The door beside him slid open, and out stepped a hulking figure. Due to the shadows and the glare of the computer screens, Julian could not make out anything besides the incredibly long claws on its left arm.

"Everyone at headquarters likes to call beings like these a 'Tyrant', but I'm sure you can come up with a better name." Philip said.

"What…do you mean?"

Completely ignoring Julian's reply, Philip continued. "How about…Leo?"

Julian stared at Philip, completely dumbfounded. Why the hell would Philip associate such a monster with his cousin?

_Unless………_

He turned back to the Tyrant, praying with all his heart that it wasn't true. Leo had gone overseas, far away from here. He lead a happy life, telling Julian almost everything in the letters he wrote. Later, he was caught up in work so he couldn't write back. He couldn't…

But as the Tyrant stepped into the light, his fears became reality. He did care about the crazed Philip standing by the computers, he didn't think about how his father, or his friends, was currently doing. All he could focus on was the monstrous humanoid in front of him that was once his cousin.

The facial features were unchanged, only his hair was now as white as snow. Standing eight foot tall, the Tyrant lumbered towards Julian, his expression blank. Julian shakily took a step back, not wanting to believe what he was looking at. It was Leo, but at the same time, it was not. The weight of the dog tags around his neck suddenly increased ten-fold, and he clutched at it. All this time, Leo had been a victim to Philip's experiments.

Behind the Tyrant, Philip was enjoying the trauma he was causing Julian. He had absolutely no chance against his creation. He had worked on it himself, supervised all the injections and training that the Tyrant, or rather, Leo had to undergo. It was too bad that Steven was lying unconscious in another room, otherwise he would have double the enjoyment.

"Alright, enough gawking. Kill him already…" Philip said with a casual wave of his hand.

"You sick bastard, how could you-"

However, Julian could not finish his sentence, for he had to duck the oncoming swipe of Leo's claws. He rolled along the ground, looking up only to see Leo pulling his claws out of the wall. The screeching of metal did little to soothe Julian's fears. He was trapped in a room with his cousin who had no idea what he was doing, and a madman who was standing in the corner eating popcorn, watching the entire scene like some kind of sick horror flick.

Julian made a mad dash for Philip. If he could knock him out, then perhaps he could find something on Philip that he could use. A remote to open the locked doors, or even a cure for Leo. But the chances for finding such a miracle item was bleak.

Philip just stood there, unmoved even after seeing Julian heading straight for him. Julian drew his right arm back, about to deliver a powerful hook to Philip's smirking face, when he was knocked off his feet. He flew across the room, crashing into the wall and landing hard on his shoulder.

Leo was there, standing in front of Philip.

_Damn, he's fast…How am I going to get out of this mess!_

Julian only managed to get into a crouching position before Leo was directly over him, bringing his claws down in a blurred motion. Julian skidded to the side, stood up, and thrust his right leg forward into Leo's gut, wanting to buy some time by at least staggering him. But due to Leo's enhanced reflexes, he caught Julian's leg with his human arm, and once again, Julian found himself being thrown against the opposite wall. His entire body was aching, his vision spinning slightly, but he could not give up. Not now.

Apparently, that was easier said than done. A massive shadow covered Julian and he didn't need to look up to see, but tried to roll away. He was, however, not fast enough. A sharp pain shot through Julian's left leg as Leo's claws pierced cleanly through his bone and into the metal floor.

He remembered that he screamed, even louder as Leo yanked his claws back out. He could see blood pouring down his leg, staining the floor. Julian crawled, as fast as he could, away from Leo, and struggled to get up. But every bit of movement brought new pain to his body.

Then, in another blurring movement, Leo charged at him again. With an injured leg, all Julian could do was throw himself backwards, hoping to evade the oncoming attack. It was to no avail, and Leo's claws sliced neatly across his chest, leaving behind three tears with three red lines that started to leak blood out, slowly.

Julian fell onto the floor. He wanted to get back up, didn't want to admit defeat, but his body simply did not allow him to. The loss of blood was getting to him. He felt his strength flowing away, as fast as the blood was pouring out of his wound.

This time, he knew it was all going to be over.

The next thing he felt, was a strong hand gripping onto his neck, lifting him into the air. He opened his tired eyes and found himself staring into Leo's blank eyes. His grip around Julian's neck tightened, and he raised his claws, preparing to impale Julian. Behind, Philip could almost feel himself trembling from excitement, to see his creation deal the final blow.

All of a sudden, Leo released Julian from his grip, and he fell onto the floor, on his already injured leg. The sharp pain shot him slightly back to his senses, but all he could hear was a loud roaring. Julian looked up, and saw Leo clutching his head and thrashing to and fro, as if suffering from a massive headache.

There was a soft tingling sound, coming from directly below Julian. He looked down, and saw that at some point, the dog tags around his neck had fallen out. The piece of metal now hung loosely around his neck, resting against the metal floor.

Julian looked from the dog tags, to Leo's thrashing figure, instantly realizing what had happened.

**X-------X-------X**

It had the human in its grasp. The human could no longer do any more fancy dodging moves. It could get rid of this annoying human once and for all. It obeyed its master, raised its claws, dreading for the end of this human who was foolish enough to stand before it. It was the ultimate creature, the strongest and most durable among everything else in the world. There was nothing that could compare to its awesome strength.

A tiny, metallic thing fell out of the human's neck, swaying slightly. It did not know why, but somehow it was drawn to it, and it could not prevent itself from looking at it. On the metallic thing was written only one thing.

Leo Linz.

At once, a throbbing pain shot itself through its head. It dropped the human and clutched its head, roaring from the pain. Flashbacks of a past it did not know came into its mind, and at once it knew what was happening.

The human inside it was reawakening.

_Leo ran up to Julian's room, practically crashing through the door and almost scaring Julian out of his seat._

"_I did it! I got the job! Can you believe it, they actually accepted me!" Leo exclaimed in between pants. It wasn't caused by the short run from the living room up to Julian's room, but more by the excitement coursing through his mind._

_Julian stood up, obviously dumbfounded. "They…they did? Holy shit, that's great!"_

_Both of them laughed, but it wasn't long before the hidden truth made itself known to Julian._

"_Thing is," Leo continued, his smile fading away as quickly as it appeared. "I have to leave tomorrow…"_

_An eerie silence fell on the two. "Really…? To where?"_

"_They gave me a position in their headquarters, and that is in Europe…" Leo replied, his voice trailing off._

_He could never forget the look on his cousin's face. That painful expression of being separated from a close person. Leo could say no more, and just gave a nod of his head and walked out of the room. He recalled that later that night, while he was packing his belongings, that Julian's room was awfully silent. Usually, sounds of fighting would emanate from his room as Julian liked to play fighting games on his PlayStation. The sudden silence slightly frightened Leo. He stopped packing, and went up to his room._

_He creaked the door open and peeked inside. Julian was lying on his bed, reading a book, completely calm. Leo heaved a sigh of relief and closed the door. What he did not see was the single tear that was slowly inching down Julian's face._

_They were extremely close cousins. Leo had decided to permanently stay with Julian, after the incident with his parents. They had abused him, and Leo could take no more of it and ran away from home. He remembered, on a rainy night, banging on Julian's door, seeing Julian's shocked expression as he stared at his bruised cousin._

_Later, Leo's parents demanded that Leo be returned, but he refused. They filed charges against Julian. But with the help of Julian's parents and their connections, they won after many weeks of trials. Since then, Leo completely cut himself off from his parents. Leo, and Julian's family, moved off to another location, away from his prison of childhood trauma._

_It was the day of his flight. They were all gathered at the airport. Leo and Julian shook hands for the final time and just as Leo started to walk through the departure gates, he turned back and put his hands up to his neck, removing the set of dog tags he always wore. He passed it onto Julian, said only one sentence, then turned back and walked through the gates._

"_Hey, this is for you. Keep it safe, so that you'll always know that I'll be alright!"_

_But he was betrayed. The position they gave him in White Umbrella, the money they promised him, it had all been a lie. They only wanted to use his body as a guinea pig, as a test for their newest discovery, the T-Virus. He could not do anything but watch as his mind faded away, replaced by the savage mind of a killing machine. However, somehow part of his mind managed to remain intact. Too small to be noticed, but it was still there, sleeping, waiting to make its comeback._

And now, thanks to the help of the dog tags around Julian's neck, it triggered the reawakening of that small fraction of his human mind. Philip had overseen this, apparently too obsessed with his experiments and had missed out on this particular aspect. They Tyrant in him was weakening, and his human side was getting stronger.

Until finally, he was Leo again.

He looked down at his body, amazed and frightened at how much they changed his body. The blood-stained claws embedded into his left arm shocked him out of his senses.

_What…what did they do to me…?_

He heard and saw movement from the corner of his eye, and saw Julian, his cousin whom he had not seen for so long, being whacked in his face by some scientist. Leo did not know who the scientist was, but the Umbrella logo on his shirt spoke all for itself. He stood up and dashed towards the scientist.

Umbrella had hurt him, and he wasn't going to let them hurt anyone else, especially his cousin.

**X-------X-------X**

It was so close to ending Julian's life, Philip did not know why the Tyrant began roaring in pain and thrashing about. Had he overlooked something during the course of the experiment?

_Impossible! Everything was perfectly planned…_

He then saw Julian looking down at something around his neck, and at once realized that it was his doing. Julian had ruined his marvelous creation. How he did it, Philip did not care. His raging anger had gotten the better of him and he stormed up to Julian.

"You bastard! What did you do to it!" Philip yelled, grabbing Julian by his collar.

"Get off me! I didn't…" Julian shouted weakly, pushing at Philip's face.

"Stop lying!" Philip slammed Julian against the wall and grabbed the metallic necklace around Julian's neck. "You used this, didn't you?"

Julian grasped Philip's hand, preventing him from yanking the dog tags off of his neck. He was willing to use up the rest of his strength to stop this madman from taking away the one thing he treasured.

This only angered Philip even more, and he used his free hand to punch Julian in his face. Julian felt blood trickle down from his nose, but did not loosen his grip on the dog tags. Another punch to his gut, and Julian began to feel his grip weakening.

But what happened next was completely unexpected.

Leo grabbed Philip's shoulder, spun him around, and drove his claws cleanly through Philip's body.

Philip's eyes widened in horror. He opened his mouth to scream in pain, but all that came out was a sick gurgling sound.

_My…my own creation…How………_

Everything else went black as Philip thought no more. Leo swung his arm and threw Philip's body into the corner. Within moments, a pool of blood formed around Philip's body.

Julian didn't care about the state Philip's body was in. He had slumped against the wall when Leo pulled Philip away from him, had seen Philip getting stabbed. And now Leo was looking down at him.

Leo opened his mouth, tried to say something, anything, and immediately doubled over and began coughing and hacking. Soon, he coughed out a thick blob of slime, which landed on the floor with a sickening 'SPLAT!'.

Julian stared at Leo as he opened his mouth again, and out came the voice that he hadn't heard for months.

"Ju…Julian…"

**X-------X-------X**

A/N : Alright alright. Now I know you all think this chapter sounds rather cheesy and cliched, but it's necessary for the story to continue on. So please don't see me in a bad light!

Now you see the reason why i want you all to read and REVIEW?


	10. Repercussions

**Author's Note**: Hi to all you readers. Once again, my sincere apologies for taking so long to update my fanfic, as you should've realised by now that I'm apologising in almost every single chapter... However, this story is approaching the end and will probably be in about 2 to 3 more chapters. Hope you had fun reading and I also hope that the ending will not dissapoint any of you!

I would also like to thank these reviewers for their wonderful reviews: Galiega, Dynamis, cole smith, and 101101101.

As for disclaimers, I have none in mind. This fic is created for the sole purpose of entertaining fans of Resident Evil, and none of the characters taken from the actual series belongs to me.

As always, please read and REVIEW!

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Chapter 10 : Repercussions

He spoke his name. A voice that he had not heard for the past few months. A voice that was all too familiar.

It was happening all too fast. Fighting a Tyrant that had once been his cousin, then seeing his best friend's father getting impaled right in front of his very eyes. Now, he was facing the very same Tyrant he was struggling to hold out from, the Tyrant who had regained its human conscience.

For a minute, they merely stared at each other, unsure of what to say. Julian remained rooted to the spot, unable to believe what his cousin had gone through. He swallowed hard, then replied with a shaky voice.

"L-Leo? What… How…?"

"It was… Umbrella… They did this… to me…" Leo said, breathing hard, his chest heaving in and out.

Umbrella. Umbrella did this to his cousin, and probably caused the entire city to fall victim to their viral outbreaks as well. It was Umbrella's fault. Julian's fist trembled slightly, but the trembling disappeared as soon as it appeared, and he hung his head in disbelief. To think that he had always regarded that company as a helpful one -- boosting the city's economy, giving his father a respectable job; only to receive a hard slap in his face.

"No… But why did they w-?" Julian started, staring down at the floor, but Leo cut him off.

"It was all a lie," A brief look of anger flashed across Leo's face. "The job offer… The promises… Everything…"

"That means, all this time, you were…" Julian said, not wanting to finish his own sentence.

Leo looked down at his cousin. His always energetic, always confident and determined cousin was reduced to a depressed 16-year old sitting on the ground. The sight stabbed his heart like a sword. He didn't ask for this to happen so suddenly. He didn't want Julian to feel the weight of a thousand emotions flooding into his mind, just because he had to reveal the truth behind his 'disappearance'. He fought for some sort of words of comfort to say, but nothing came out. All he could do, was watch as Julian tried to clear the confusion plaguing his mind.

It was another minute before Leo spoke up again. "Julian, we have to get out of here, away from this place." He hesitated before continuing. "I'm sorry, Julian, but I didn't want this to happen…"

"Don't worry… You have nothing to be sorry for." Julian replied, slowly raising his head. At this point, Leo could see that Julian's face was clean. No tears, no red tear-soaked eyes. Nothing. Leo had expected Julian to cry, so this showed that Julian was stronger than he had thought. "If there was someone who should be sorry, it should be Umbrella…"

That one word brought new anger into Leo, but he would have to wait for a chance to vent it onto Umbrella. Right now, getting both of them to a safe place was of the highest priority.

He walked over to Julian and knelt down, examining the wound on his leg. It was probably caused by the fight earlier, when Leo was still under the influence of the virus (and he felt extremely ashamed at knowing that he had caused such an injury to Julian). He tore off the bottom part of Julian's shirt, or what was left of it, and wrapped it around Julian's leg, earning him a muffled curse from Julian. After that, he placed his arm around Julian's shoulder and helped him to his feet.

"Wait. We have to find my father first." Julian said.

"Sure, no problem. Come on…" With Leo's newfound strength, he could easily suspend Julian in the air with his arm while walking. Before they reached the door, however, Julian spoke up again.

"By the way…"

"What?" Leo asked.

"Did you realize that you're naked…?" Julian said matter-of-factly.

The sudden comment stunned Leo. He then realized, without a doubt, that it was actually true. He couldn't help but laugh sarcastically, and so did Julian. Together, they left the room and proceeded down the hallway.

Leo was determined to protect his cousin, no matter what the cost. He was sure of it.

**X-------X-------X**

Celine cursed and sweared, tapping her foot impatiently against the tiled flooring. The incubator in front of her kept spinning, but nothing was coming out of the stupid hole. She didn't have a lot of time – the missiles were already on their way, and what made it worse was that some idiot had set detonators all around the damn university, and it was timed to go off in less than 5 minutes.

As much as she did not want to remember it, her mind shifted back to just 10 minutes before, back when she was talking to that creepy scientist.

_What was his name? Greg? Bah, doesn't really matter now…_ Celine thought.

Turned out it was he who turned off the power to the incubator earlier on, which had taken Celine by surprise. When she confronted him in that large empty room, he had spoken to her in an almost ecstatic tone. He referred to that Tyrant she barely managed to outrun as his 'ultimate creation', and that Umbrella could not have the Daylight, whatever it was . At first, he looked as if he was on Celine's side. That is, against Umbrella. But the flicker of insanity beneath those small glasses of his was more than enough for Celine to back away. Just as she wanted to say something, a shot rang out in the room.

Next thing she knew, Greg was lying on the floor with blood pouring out of his chin, staining the floor and the flashing projector. As soon as she looked upwards to the supposed shooter, her heart almost stopped beating when she saw the small device stuck onto the ceiling, and the constant beeping sound which accompanied it.

_Ka-chunk!_

Celine snatched the small vial from the small compartment. In it, was some crystal clear solution that glimmered in the light. There was a small needle on one end of the vial, and a button on the other. Without hesitating, she folded up her left sleeve, and stabbed the needle into her vein. This was what her sister sacrificed herself for, and as the smooth, cool liquid flowed into her body and throughout, Celine smiled.

Her sister's death would not be in vain.

But it would be if she didn't get her ass out of the university in time.

A minute later, Celine snatched the second and third vial which popped into the small compartment, and ran out through the door to the right of the incubator. When she had reactivated the incubator previously, she saw that Greg not only cut off the power to the incubator, but also to the entire university, which means that the elevator was not an option.

Ignoring Greg's corpse, Celine dashed through the sliding doors to her left, and found herself in a long grating hallway. She slid down the ladder as graceful as she could and headed to the other end. Soon, she was back in the room where she had found her sister. Alyssa's body laid in the exact same spot, covered by a blanket that Celine managed to find. As much as she hated leaving her sister's body here like this, soon to be incinerated, she had no choice. A quick glance at her watch told her she had less than two minutes before she became a human firework. After whispering a 'Sorry' to her sister's corpse, Celine picked up her pace and ran out the door.

Now she was back in the main lobby. All that separated her and the door to the back square was a simple wooden door, but the catch was that the door had no doorknob on her side. She tried kicking the door several times but it wouldn't give. Cursing her luck, Celine continued to kick at the door. The wood was already splintering, she was almost there…

And then, a crash resounded behind her. She whirled around only to come face to face with the same Tyrant that attacked her. No doubt it was Greg's so-called 'ultimate creation', seeing that there was a nice, big hole in the wall to her front-left.

"Oh man, not NOW…" Celine blurted out, wishing that the damn Tyrant could understand English so that she could vent more of her anger through insults.

It charged at her, bringing its right arm back. Celine let out a 'Whoa!' and ducked to the side. Its claws actually sliced off a few strands of her free hair as it punctured into the door. She rolled along the carpet flooring, got up, and saw that the Tyrant had withdrew its arm from the door, taking the entire wooden door with it.

_Well, at least THAT'S a good thing…_ Celine thought, as she fired her weapon at its face.

Bullets peppered into its expressionless face, knocking out chunks of meat and flesh, but it did little to stagger such a powerful being. Instead, it seemed as if the bullets made it even angrier, and it dashed towards her again, which, in this case, was what Celine wanted. She waited till the last moment before throwing her body to the floor, while keeping her legs outstretched. She felt the wind and even heard the soft swish of its clawed arm as it flew past her.

And her plan worked.

Even though it was an unstoppable killing machine, the Tyrant clumsily tripped over Celine's outstretched legs and fell head over heels, finally crashing into the pillar. There was no time, however, to remain on the ground and laugh at how silly the fall looked, and as Celine got up and headed for the now open doorway, she thought she heard an angered growl coming from the Tyrant. She couldn't help but look at her watch again as she ran down the hallway.

Ten seconds left.

Celine burst through the double doors and was only able to run a few more steps ahead before the university exploded, sending her flying even further. She landed hard on her shoulder and rolled several times, almost crashing straight into the vehicle that was parked at the opposite end of the square.

Small bits of rubble rained down onto her face, irritating her eyes and dirtying her hair. Slowly, she stood up, using the car as a ledge to hold on to and steady herself. Before her was what was left of the university. Most of the top half of the building was completely gone, blown till kingdom come, while the portion that remained intact looked like it crumble should a child even lean on it.

_Rest in peace, Alyssa… _Celine thought, and she felt a tear running down her cheek again.

Now was not the time to cry. Not yet.

Her sister had left her a job to do, and that was in the form of two small vials which was squashed into her pocket. That was the golden key which could lock the doors to Umbrella's deadly virus once and for all, and perhaps even bring Umbrella down.

The sound of a propeller floated into her ear. Looking up, her expression changed completely, and as the helicopter came into view, she felt ecstatic. Almost like a person who was dying of thirst in a scorching desert and had just found an oasis.

"Hold on! We're coming down!" came the gentle voice of a fireman after Celine began frantically waving her arms. "Stand clear!"

"Ahmad, take us down at the end of the square, on the ocean side." The fireman directed, lowering the loud-speaker.

"Gotcha'!" The fireman named Ahmad said, and he began piloting the chopper gracefully towards the ground.

Back on the ground, Celine continued to yell. "Oh come ON, what's taking you! We haven't got all d-"

_CRAAAASH!_

Celine heard the crash over the loud beating of the helicopter's blades. A loud 'thump' followed shortly after, and the creature that landed in front of her hit the ground with such impact, that the gravel actually gave way slightly, forming a small crater around it. It looked just like a scene out of the storybooks, where the main hero was facing his last enemy, his nemesis.

In this case, it was the Tyrant from before.

But something was different.

"Oh no, not you again…" Celine complained. It was bad enough that someone tried to bury her under tons of rubble, and now it became even worse with this freak stalking her.

The Tyrant stood up and turned. Celine, upon laying eyes on its body, was slightly taken aback. It had mutated to the point that it grew an entire head taller. Its muscles on its body were more intense than ever. It had lost its right arm, with pieces of meat hanging loosely and a bone clearly sticking out of its shoulder (something which sickened Celine), but its left arm was longer than Celine's entire body. At the end were four nasty, goodness-knows-how-long claws that gleamed a demonic orange from the light cast by the fires.

It opened its mouth, and Celine thought it was going to give its traditional roar before charging at her, bracing for evasion. But something entirely different happened, something which Celine had never thought possible.

"My name…is Thanatos…"

"What the… You TALK!" Celine couldn't help but exclaim. It had not only mutated, it _evolved_, gaining the ability to talk like a human, instead of roaring and growling like an animal.

"You…killed…my father…" Thanatos continued, the rage and anger welling up inside him. Its voice was deep, rough, menacing, piercing deep into Celine's soul.

_His father! Does he mean…_

"You mean Greg?" Celine questioned, completely ignoring the hovering helicopter and the impending missiles. "I didn't kill him! Someone else did!"

"You LIE!" And without delay, Thanatos charged towards Celine, covering a shocking distance within one leap.

Celine had let her guard down in her shock, and it cost her. Thanatos' swung his arm towards the left, hitting Celine squarely in her stomach.

All the air was forced out of her lungs as she flew a good 5 feet across the square, bashing straight into the wall. Her vision blurred slightly in the pain that shot through her entire body, and she struggled to get up.

"You don't…deserve…to live…" Thanatos roared, and began walking towards Celine (although his one step was equivalent to two steps taken by a normal human).

"I-I didn't… Why…?" Celine demanded, though her voice was weak and not at all convincing enough, but she was trying to buy some time for her body to recover.

"I was created…to destroy." Thanatos continued, barely slowing his pace. "Humans are weak. They don't…deserve to even _walk _on this land!"

He broke into a run on the last word. Celine's eyes widened in shock and, ignoring the pain in her body, leapt to the side. Thanatos' clawed arm crashed into the wall just inches behind her, and the shockwave sent her flying forwards yet again. She landed flat on her belly, and struggled to get up.

That was when she saw the bodies.

Three, no, four, corpses lay on the ground in a dispersed manner. They all were heavily clad in Kevlar armour and had gas masks on, suggesting that they were probably from some kind of SWAT team. The presence of claw marks on their bodies hinted at what happened to these soldiers, and that was most likely falling victim to the Tyrant's brutal strength.

Something shiny was in the pocket of the dead soldier directly in front of her. Celine saw some kind of handle sticking out, but it looked like no ordinary handle. It was silvery, and something else was on top of it. A special type of gun, maybe?

"No human can stand up against me, not even a hundred!" came Thanatos' nightmarish voice. Celine's heart almost stopped when she realized how close his voice was. Still lying on the ground, she rolled around.

Thanatos was standing over her, staring at her with those devil eyes.

"Now DIE!" Thanatos roared, bringing its arm high above his head. Celine quickly grabbed at the silver handle, yanked it out, and rolled to the side, seconds before Thanatos' arm came crashing down. It flattened the soldier's body with a sickening 'splat!', spraying clotted blood everywhere.

Celine got up and ran while Thanatos was still recovering from his attack, looking down at the gun at the same time. It appeared to be some sort of gun, not for shooting bullets, but for shooting pills and small vials, judging by the shape and size of the chamber.

_Vials? But what would this vial do to hi-_

Another thought occurred to her, something which she would kick herself later for not realizing it. The Daylight, or whatever she chose to call it, was able to eradicate and prevent the reappearance of the T-Virus in a human body. If Thanatos was genetically engineered using the T-Virus, its body would be flooded with nothing but the virus itself. Which means, that shooting the Daylight into his body would cause a major chain reaction, possibly effectively shutting down his entire system. She needed to keep one vial as evidence, otherwise she would leave the city empty-handed, and that was something Celine was not proud of.

And that meant, that she would only have one shot. No more.

Several loud thumps sounded from behind her. Celine turned and saw that Thanatos was still a good distance away. However, he drew his arm backwards, and Celine saw that as he swung it forwards, it was _elongating_, becoming twice as long as it used to, and far enough to reach her. She immediately ducked all the way down, and heard the swishing of his arm directly above her head. Hastily fiddling with the gun, she managed to load the vial in. She clicked the chamber shut, and held the gun up, directly at Thanatos.

She didn't know the right way of firing it. Whether it had small or large recoil, how much the vial will arc downwards due to its weight, she did not know. And she only had one shot.

"Grr, what's that thing going to do to me? Give up, and succumb to your death!" Thanatos roared.

This was her only chance. She held the gun with both hands to steady her aim.

"I think not!" Celine yelled back, and pulled the trigger.

**X-------X-------X**

The small vial pierced neatly into Thanatos' pulsating heart. He hardly felt any pain at all, but this human, this _mortal,_ was about to suffer a pain that she could barely imagine. She was a fool to think that such a powerful being like him would be taken down by a mere toy.

His father had perfected him, had given him the strength, intelligence, and agility to take down an entire nation. He would do his father proud, and show the entire world what he was capable of. Thanatos would strike fear into the hearts of every living being, and nothing would be able to stand in his way.

And then he felt it, the spreading of a poisonous liquid throughout his entire body. He looked down at the 'toy' that the human shot. It was just a small tube that was stuck into his heart, how could it affect his entire system?

The pain came slowly at first, but it began to build up quickly, and before he knew it, Thanatos found himself roaring in pain. His skin began to tear open by itself in numerous places, ripping large gashes throughout his body. From the gashes, gushes of blood did not pour out, instead, a blinding white light emanated from each wound.

"What… A human…"

_She's nothing… but a human!_

"How is it…that I'm being defeated…destroyed?"

_HOW?_

"GRAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!"

In one immense flash of light, Thanatos' body exploded. He understood it now, he understood everything. The reason to his existence, why he was destined to be defeated by a mere human. Everything.

It was a pity he realized it only at the moment of his death.

And as his vision and thoughts faded away, his mind began to repent.

He was going to ask for forgiveness. Nothing more.

**X-------X-------X**

Danny's jaw literally hit the ground when that monster blew apart in a blinding flash of light.

They couldn't land the chopper when that thing had jumped out from the rubble and confronted that woman, not if they wanted to get their chopper slashed and thrown around. As such, they were only able to hover around the square and watch as the woman did battle with that monster.

_Damn, those claws were HUGE…_

He was also immensely surprised that the woman was able to take down such a creature all by herself. Despite his profession as a fireman, given his current age, he probably wouldn't be able to catch up with all these youngsters nowadays.

Danny shook his head to clear his mind. Now was not the time to lose focus – they were already _that_ close to getting out of this god-forsaken city. Earlier, the department had issued a warning that the United States Government had already sent their F-16s with their bigass load. Hell, they had probably fired their missiles already and were awaiting the fireworks.

"Ahmad, quick, take us down now."

The chopper was barely hovering over the ground when that woman jumped in, tumbling into the small compartment.

"Hey there, be careful. Wouldn't want you to break your neck after such a fight!" Danny joked, helping the woman up. She looked extremely pretty, suggesting that she was around her mid 20s or so. Too bad _he _himselfwas already 40. "What's your name?"

"It's Celine," the woman said, quite impatiently. "and can we go now? I'm getting sick of this place…"

Danny laughed. This woman had all the energy and vibrance that a modern youngster should have, and that, Danny was grateful for.

"Already on it. Ahmad, get us outta here!" Danny instructed to the fidgety pilot.

The helicopter flew towards the sunrise – they flew over deserted fields, destroyed buildings, deserted playgrounds, as well as legions of those poor people who fell to that sickness. Scorching flames and pillars of smoke rising high into the sky made the entire city look like it was the Daemonium, a place that no human can truly comprehend.

Finally, they were getting out of the city, to a life that they all deserved.

Finally, they were escaping the clutches of Raccoon City.

**X-------X-------X**

Desmond and Andrew had managed to uncouple the links between the front carriage and the ones behind. They were also able to at least clear some rubble which had so conveniently placed themselves onto the roof of the front carriage, despite experiencing hindrances from their injuries.

Now, they were silently waiting for their one remaining teammate to show up.

Andrew was sitting on the ground outside, looking out for any signs of danger, or Julian, for that matter; while Desmond was in the driver's compartment, fiddling with the controls. He had absolutely no idea how to operate the damn train, and it would be pointless if they had a means of escape, but no way to operate it. He figured that if he could at least find the ignition button, then things would go much smoother.

His eyes fell onto a transmitter, a small black speaker set into the corner of the control panel. The mic was dangling on its cord, hanging over the panel. Desmond grasped it, held it to his mouth, and began pressing some of the buttons on the panel with his other hand. Soon, the transmitter crackled to life, emitting nothing but static.

Desmond began speaking into the mic, unsure of whether the signal was directed to who.

"Err… Hello? Is anybody there?" Desmond paused for a while for any response.

Nothing.

"Helloooooooo………?"

The static remained as loud and annoying as ever.

"Umbrella, you suck big time…!" Desmond couldn't help but say it out loud into the mic. After all they had gone through, all the frustration, he thought that maybe he deserved to be offensive for a while. Call it, a stress-relieving method.

_Bah, stupid thing. It's probably not even sending the signal._

Desmond let the mic dangle on the cord again and didn't bother switching the transmitter off. He began to walk out and talk to Andrew when he heard something.

It was soft and broken at first, overshadowed by the loud crackling of static. Then, the transmission became clearer. As the person on the other line spoke, Desmond simply remained where he was. He heard from some people that the position of people in a room may affect the transmission of signals, so the only solution was to not move at all. And that was what he was doing. Not moving.

"…peat…Missi……eady…on………city…Any……remain……vivors, evacu……I repeat…"

_What the…hell?_

The message became clearer the second time round.

"Missile already……course for…city…Any re……survivors, evacu…… I repeat…"

Desmond's eyes widened, and he dashed towards the mic, practically yelling into it.

"Hello? HELLO? We're survivors inside the city. HELLO!" Now, the signal was as clear as ever.

"A survivor? Thank god. Listen to me, listen very carefully," the voice on the other end spoke without any hesitations. "you've got to find a way to get out of the city now."

"But what's going on? What missiles are you talking about?" Desmond questioned, already grasping the mic with both hands. Behind him, Andrew came running into the compartment, stopping at the door and wondering what the heck was going on.

"The situation is being contained…" The voice on the other end trailed off, obviously uncomfortable in finishing the sentence.

"The city is going to be nuked."

Desmond and Andrew looked at each other in shock. Julian had not even come back, and now someone over a transmitter was telling them that the city was about to be blown into oblivion. It sounded highly unbelievable, but in a situation like this, anything became possible.

"You have around thirty minutes, no more, no less. So hurry and get the hell out! Over and out." The voice finished, and then nothing else came through the transmitter but the constant hissing of static.

"Oh shit, this is not good…" Desmond said, throwing the mic back down.

"He said thirty minutes, and I think we should give Julian twenty minutes. After that…" Andrew trailed off, and lowered his head.

"Let's just hope that doesn't happen. I know Julian…heck, YOU know Julian. He would never just leave us like this!"

"Yes, I know obviously know him…" Andrew replied, annoyed at the remark. "It's just that, in such a situation like this, a person may not act the same way as he usually does."

There was a brief silence before Andrew continued.

"I'm not saying that he's going to abandon us. I'm just saying that, there is a chance Julian may not be able to make it back at all…"

"Don't worry," Desmond said, determined. "That would be a very small chance."

He trusted Julian. They were best buddies for goodness knows how many years. They knew each other almost inside out (not literally, mind you), and Julian was not one to leave his friends behind just for the sake of saving himself.

They were going to wait for him, and then they would be able to get out of the city.

**X-------X-------X**

A/N: I know making Thanatos talk canbe a bit freaky, but it was an entirely new concept and I wanted to try it out. Next chapter may be coming in about 2-3 weeks, seeing as how my damn school has made us do a subject called Project Work... Hope that you will still continue to read...AND REVIEW!


	11. Hope Still Remains

Author's Note: Hey y'all readers! Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had to make sure I got this chapter perfected, and had to do many referencing to the previous chapters, so I hope you find it to your satisfaction!

AND, as usual, please READ & REVIEW!

Chapter 11 : Hope Still Remains

He knew, without a doubt, that there was a very good chance that he would have to leave his father behind. The small percentage chance of not having to do so was negligible, given the current state his father was in.

But a small percent was more than enough; any son would know that. His father, however, had already made his decision. A decision that would scar both their hearts for all eternity.

Julian did not want to think about it.

There he was, kneeling down beside his barely-conscious father with tears streaming down his face. It seems that while Julian was unconscious, Philip had knocked Steven around even more, worsening his injuries and giving him a few new ones. Now, Steven had a twisted ankle, a broken right arm, fractured ribs, and even missing a few tooth.

All in all, he looked like he was just run over by a bus.

He pleaded and pleaded, trying to give his father some false hope by saying things like "You can make it!" and "Leo can carry you, we can get out of here!", but Steven was fully aware that he will be more of a liability than a help.

"I've already made a grave mistake by continuing my work…" Steven had said, barely over a whisper. "I can't leave this place and not be haunted by my faults…"

"What do you mean you can't leave this place!" Julian practically yelled in his father's face. "Please dad, don't throw your life away just because of such a stupid reason!"

Steven shot back, his face suddenly filled with vigor. "That's not a stupid reason!" Then, his vigor disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. His head slumped back onto the wall, his shoulders sagging once again. "When you've been working on something your whole life, only to discover that your research was going to be used in the wrong way… You wouldn't understand how I feel right now!"

Even if others had said that Julian was strong in his language, that he could refute what anybody else said on the spot, he was speechless now. All he did was stare and stare into his father's fading but determined eyes, tears still welling up in his eyes.

"No, dad. Please…"

Leo remembered how good it was to love and be loved in the past by his parents, before their love for him suddenly turned sour. Why it had happened, he would never know.

And he would never want to know.

But now, he couldn't help but recall all the possible reasons as he witnessed the scene before his very eyes – his cousin, always strong in character but now reduced to tears, weeping in front of his father who could very well be on the verge of death. Had this entire incident strengthened Julian, or only served to break his mind into a million more pieces?

Whatever the reason, Leo still did not know whether to feel sorry for Julian or not.

"What about Mum? Or Sis? Or our entire family!" Julian said. "What about them? You gonna just die like this and leave them all alone?"

Memories of his time with his family came flooding into Steven's mind as soon as Julian had mentioned them, good memories and bad ones as well. Birthdays, celebrations, achievements, all were golden in Steven's mind. But were they good or strong enough to overshadow the sins he have made?

It seemed that every single second Steven had spent on his research, was a second added to their future suffering. He had already made his decision, and he was damn hell going to follow it.

"I'm sure they will understand…"

"No! No, they won't! What makes you so sure they will?" Julian yelled again. He was plagued with confusion as to why his father was thinking like this.

At this, Steven went silent. Julian was right, how was he to know whether the others will forgive him for what he has done, or what he is about to do? It was human nature for family members to understand each other's actions, but it was still possible for them not to.

"They must. Don't you see Julian? I don't have a choice. The more I remain on this earth, the more I will threaten our family!"

"There is another choice. There always is…" Julian trailed off, almost on the verge of giving up trying to talk his father out of his crazy decision.

"I will always be with you, even after I am gone…" Steven raised his hand and placed it on Julian's shoulder, managing a smile. "Now you have to get out of here, before…before the missiles hit…"

With the mention of the word "missiles", Leo's eyes widened.

_What missiles? Does he mean that the city was about to blown to hell!_

If that were true, then yes, they HAD to get out of here, and fast.

He stepped forward and grabbed Julian's arm. At first, Julian resisted, not wanting to leave his father's side. All the hate he had towards his father disappeared, and now he was regretting even feeling like that towards him in the first place. But if the both of them were to perish along with the city, then nobody would know what really happened in Raccoon City, to his father.

And so, he slowly allowed himself to be helped up by Leo. As they headed towards the door, Julian turned back to catch a last glimpse of his father. Steven looked back, and gave a thumbs-up.

"You only have around thirty minutes from now. I suggest you move quick…!"

Now, Julian was limping down the hallways, helped by Leo. His vision was starting to get blurry -- a reward for losing too much blood from the wound in his leg -- but the image of his father remained etched in his mind, as clear as daylight.

It was really strange, he thought, that when you have hated or despised someone for almost your whole life, all those feelings of anger and frustration would wash away once you've realized that you're no longer going to see that person ever again. Julian saw his father as someone who only cared about his work and not his family, when in actual fact, his father was trying to do what's best for all of them – bringing in the income, putting food on the table, everything that a typical father would work for.

And it took Julian 10 years to realize that.

What could he do now to make up for his attitude? He would never see his father again. He would not be able to love or hate him anymore. Nothing.

But perhaps the most he could do, was take down the very people who betrayed him, and Leo as well. The heartless company who wouldn't think twice or give a shit about the consequences of their actions.

Now they will.

_Umbrella._

In anger, Julian clenched his fist. He knew the difficulty of bringing down such a corporation. Could one man, one _boy_, make a difference? Nevertheless, either he will forget about it and let his father's death be in vain, or he will die trying.

The answer was obvious.

Leo had kept silent ever since they left the room. He couldn't imagine what his cousin was going through right now, seeing all the tears he spilled. He wasn't that a good judge of character himself, constantly stereotyping that everyone around him (except Julian, of course) were nothing but emotionless bastards, so he obviously wouldn't know how to respond to this kind of situations. That was expected, wasn't it? After all, he did have two of those emotionless bastards as parents.

How many times had he run home to show his gleaming grades, and get nothing in return? How many times had he wanted to inform them of his achievements in sports, only to be shunned away as if he was merely interrupting their 'special time' together? Not even a simple "Well done!" or a pat on his back, Leo had retreated to the confines of his room, not wanting to swear at his parents, but at the same time, desperately wanting to.

Maybe it was because of the new woman who had stepped into his father's life, into their lives. His father had always shown a caring attitude towards Leo, so that woman must have poisoned and corrupted his mind to the extent that he would so willingly throw away his own flesh and blood for some stranger.

But isn't it the duty of a father to always love and cherish his own children, and never to be swayed from that duty? Knowing this, Leo, till now, was unsure whether to blame his father or his step-mother.

For now, there was no use racking his mind over that. His parents were out of the picture, so he couldn't give a rat's ass about them. What mattered now was protecting his cousin, and dealing with his own monstrous body as well. Who knew when the Tyrant in him will rear its ugly head again.

"Are we…are we reaching the station yet?" Julian asked, his voice becoming softer with each sentence.

"Almost. Hang in there, we'll get your wound fixed up soon. You're gonna be ok…" Leo said as he strengthened his grip.

"No worries, I don't think I'll be dying anytime soon…" Julian joked.

"Not funny."

"Didn't say it was…"

_After all this time, his lameness hasn't changed one bit._

"Any of your friends waiting for us there?" It was unlikely that Julian would survive the entire journey to the compound all by himself. If he did, then Leo would seriously have to consider his fighting capabilities.

"Yeah, Andrew and Desmond. You've met them before right?"

"Yes, yes I did…"

Andrew Jacobs and Desmond Watt. Leo had met them on several occasions, most of which were lunch outings organized by Julian. It all seemed fuzzy (after you've been cryogenized, why wouldn't it be?), but he vaguely remembered their characters. Bickering over the simplest of things, teasing each other for no apparent reason, all Leo had done was stand aside and laugh at the entire scene.

And to think that they have willingly accompanied Julian on this trip to hell. It was obvious that those 2 weren't the 'I'm-friends-with-you-only-because-you're-rich' kind of people. He wasn't complaining, but he could sure make do with friends like that.

Then again, he knew that he wasn't very good at keeping friends. Or, more specifically, at maintaining strong friendships.

He couldn't blame anyone for that. Not his negligent parents, and definitely not himself. It was just the way he was, just like how everyone was unique in their own way.

But if he thought like that, it would be the same as accepting your own death on the spot.

Could he really break the chains of fate now, and choose his own actions instead of leaving them up to others? Leo was daring, but this was different. Sure, he has been thrown into a life and death situation, along with his cousin, so it was going to take a tremendous amount of determination to do so.

Nevertheless, his actions now will most likely determine what they will experience in the near future, and Leo wasn't going to give up.

They reached the door leading to the station with just ten minutes to spare. Both heaved a huge sigh of relief as the door slid open, but Leo knew that it wasn't alright till they were miles away from here.

They were completely oblivious to the shadow that darted across the corridor behind them. It was given a duty to perform, and it had managed to track them down using the spots of blood on the floor.

It remained in the shadows. Hiding and watching.

**X-------X-------X**

Andrew stood up when he heard the sliding door open, flicking the safety off his shotgun as he did so. He highly doubt that if it was another monster, it would've made its entry in another way than just walking in through the front door.

But in a city where zombies prowled the streets and freaky-looking creatures with tongues the length of a bus jumped from rooftop to rooftop, an elaborate entry would be the last thing Andrew was worried about.

He heard movement coming from inside the train, as well as the obvious 'click' of a handgun. Desmond must have heard the door as well.

Footsteps echoed in the massive room as Andrew tightened his grip on the shotgun. Whatever it was, it wasn't a zombie, since they had a habit of tumbling head over heels when they encountered flights of stairs.

Initially, he saw Julian's figure come into view. His head was slightly down, and there was a sick-looking gash in his left leg that was bandaged in an already blood-soaked piece of cloth. And it looked like he was being supported by…

"What the fuck…" Andrew murmured as he squinted, not believing what he saw. Behind him, Desmond came walking out and almost tripped over the stairs leading down from the train in shock.

A massive figure, easily twice the size of Andrew, was supporting Julian. It had several big claws sticking out from its other arm, not to mention its impossibly broad shoulders. All Andrew could do was stare until Julian and that thing walked towards them. Once they were closer, Andrew got a good look at its face, and pondered.

_That face… Why does it look so familiar?_

"Julian? Um, who is…" Andrew started.

"I'm Leo, we've met before, thought I certainly look different than our last meeting." The giant said.

_Leo…Julian's cousin! But, what happened to his body…?_

"Hell, yeah. Whatever the heck happened to you!" Desmond said, finally breaking out of his state of awe.

Leo hesitated, looking at them with his vacant eyes. It appeared that he was carefully choosing his words, which also meant that he had something to hide. Andrew could see this. For some reason, he was exceptionally good at reading people's body language.

"I was a guinea pig for an experiment. Let's just leave it as that for now."

As expected, Leo was definitely concealing something behind those words, but whatever it was, Andrew wouldn't be so direct as to question Leo face-to-face. If there really was anything suspicious going on, he felt that it would make itself known sooner or later, though Andrew preferred the latter.

"Is the train ready? We've REALLY got to get out fast…" Julian said.

"Yeah, mostly, and I agree with the 'getting out of here quickly' part. Seems we weren't the only ones who know about them missiles." Desmond said.

"All just to cover up everything…" Andrew recited. "Never imagined such people really existed in this world."

And it was true. His father had worked so hard for the company, and in return, Andrew had gotten almost everything he ever wanted. Luxurious living, branded goods, you name it. Fortunately, he wasn't the kind of person who would transform into a spoiled brat after being buried under ten feet of money. That was the reason why he didn't walk out onto the streets with bling-bling style accessories and fancy hairstyles.

And it was also the reason why Julian, Desmond, and himself was able to remain as best friends all this time.

"We'll save any happy reunions for later. For now, we better get moving." Leo demanded.

Not wanting to disobey commands issued from a giant, Andrew and Desmond scrambled onto the train, while Leo helped Julian up. Desmond, who had spent the most amount of time fiddling with the train controls earlier, headed into the driver's compartment to start the train, while Andrew closed the door behind Leo.

Desmond, once again, fiddled with the controls until the train managed to start up. Initially, he adjusted the speed to a suitable number, and then he looked at his watch, and immediately hammered the lever and shot the speed to maximum.

They only had slightly over five minutes before everything was going to be blown to kingdom come.

Behind, the three passengers suffered whiplash as the train rocked and jerked unsteadily on the track. There were only 3 carriages left after the mayhem that Desmond and Andrew caused – the driver's compartment, and two passenger carriages. So, the train was speeding much faster since it had only 3 carriages, as compared to the 6 it initially had.

"Hold on guys! We're going at full speed!" Desmond yelled over the noise.

"Wow, we didn't realize that!" Andrew yelled back sarcastically, stumbling back and forth in the shaking carriage.

_Clank!_

Even in a weak state, Julian thought he heard something in the carriage behind. But amidst all the metallic noise that the train was making, zooming ahead at probably a hundred miles per hour, it was probably some iron pipe dropping from a table.

He turned his head back to face the front. Andrew was grasping onto a table as if his life depended on it, mumbling something to himself, while Leo was standing in front of him, staring out the window into the darkness of the tunnel. Andrew had found some kind of employee's shirt and pants, and passed them to Leo. He couldn't fit into the shirt, but barely got into the pants. Still, it was better than walking around naked.

Soon, the darkness transformed into a faint light as the train rocketed out of the tunnel and into the morning air. It was dawn. The sun was slowly creeping over the mountains that surrounded the city, pouring its rays over the outskirts of the city. The city itself, however, remained as bleak and destroyed as it ever was. Pillars of smoke were rising into the sky, whilst some buildings were still on fire. In the distance, Julian could hear the constant whirring of a helicopter, indicating that there were survivors of the chaos on the other side of the city.

That wasn't the only thing that he could hear.

Over the annoying noise of the train, Julian could still hear the hungry moans of the undead. How many lives were lost due to Umbrella's recklessness? How many dreams crushed and swept away to make way for a completely materialistic and cruel one? The moaning of those once human was the answer. Julian clenched his fist in anger as a tear slid down his face, knowing that one of those 'lives lost' was his father's.

It wasn't long before the blast came. Leo shouted something, pointing towards the sky. In reply, Desmond yelled something back, accompanied by Andrew. It didn't matter what they were yelling about, as the sheer sound of the explosion drowned out everything else.

And as Julian fell off the seat and face-flat onto the ground, he could do nothing but close his eyes and pray.

**X-------X-------X**

Celine leaned her head back in exhaustion, closing her eyes and listening to the constant buzzing of the engine. Beside her, a tall, muscular man yawned and stepped on the accelerator. His skin was tanned to a brown colour, and he wore a singlet and army pants, showing off his muscles to a great degree. His hair was of appropriate length and it hung over his forehead.

The man's yawning caused Celine herself to yawn as well. So much had happened, and she had so little time to rest.

She couldn't believe that just a while ago, she got into a fight with a monster twice her size, not to mention that it even spoke to her. She remembered feeling the morning breeze against her face as the helicopter soared into the sky and above the death-ridden city. A conversation had ensued between her and the fireman sitting with her behind.

_Danny…That was his name right? Danny the fireman…_

After all, it was his job to calm any survivors down. He had asked Celine what she was going to do after they flew her to another city, and she had politely instructed them to drop her off outside the city, but far enough such that she wouldn't be blown away by the shockwave. She had almost burst out laughing when she saw the expression on Danny's face after saying all that, but he kept quiet and passed the instructions to the pilot.

Once on the ground, Danny gave her a thumbs-up and Celine smiled back, watching the helicopter disappear into the morning sky. It was just before her ride arrived that she saw the city ignite in a bright, blinding light.

Raccoon City was gone, and it was over.

But not for her. Her journey was just beginning.

Somehow, standing there watching the city get blown into a billion pieces, her thoughts shifted to the young boy she met amidst her search in the city. She wondered whether that boy and his friends made it out in time. In fact, she _hoped_ that they had made it out in time.

When the dark blue minivan pulled up beside her, she instinctively gave the driver the finger.

"You're late, Briareos…" Celine grumbled as she got into the front passenger seat.

"Sorry, bad traffic. Hey, at least you got to see the fireworks!" Briareos replied, smiling at her. His voice was a mix of American and Canadian, and sometimes Celine thought that it was rather comforting and soothing to hear.

"Very funny… Come on, let's blow this joint."

"Gotcha! Everyone else back at HQ have been anxious to see you. Guess you've grown more popular, eh?" Briareos joked, turning the minivan around with a perfect 3-point turn.

"I guess I have…" Celine murmured.

Now, they were driving around the outskirts of the city, admiring the scenery, or what's left of it. The helicopter had dropped her off on the wrong side of the city, but she was too damn tired to say anything, but she could use the time to rest a bit before the second hell started.

"What the hell…?" Briareos said, waking Celine up from her slumber. She was about to curse at him, but she followed his gaze to the side of the road ahead of them.

Four human figures, one towering above the others, stood at the side of the road, waving frantically at them. They looked very familiar, and as Briareos brought the minivan closer, Celine got a clear look at their faces.

It was Julian, and his friends.

But it was the tallest person that got Celine's attention the most. He looked almost exactly like the Tyrant she had fought back at the university, though a bit smaller. Even Briareos' jaw dropped when he saw him.

Agreeing that that giant wasn't going to be a threat, since he was with three normal humans after all, Briareos pulled up right beside them and winded down the window. As soon as Julian and his two other friends saw her, they exclaimed in shock.

"Talk about a small world eh?" Celine said. "But, who's THAT guy?" She pointed at the fourth person.

"Oh, that's my cousin, Leo. He…err…" Julian trailed off, locking gazes with Leo.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you after we get Julian some medical attention." Leo said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, I couldn't agree more." Briareos said, bending over the window and looking at the blood-soaked make-shift bandage on Julian's leg.

And that was that. The four of them crammed into the minivan, with Leo taking up the most space obviously, and they drove off into the sunrise.

Julian heaved a sigh of relief. They were finally leaving the city, away from all the blood, away from all the suffering. He would rest up, get himself cleaned up, and then his battle with Umbrella would begin. He didn't know whether Andrew and Desmond would accompany him, but it didn't matter.

Umbrella was going down.

**X-------X-------X**

A/N: Ok, it may sound like this chapter is the last in this fanfic, but it isn't alright? I'll probably add in either 1 or 2 more chapters to serve as epilogue before officially declaring this story as COMPLETE.

And need I remind you again? R&R!


	12. Epilogue 1: Sinister Development

Author's Note: Hey all! These are the last 2 chapters for this fanfic. Don't mind the shortness, since they're basically epilogues.

And for some reason, I just realized that I had not thanked the reviewers since chapter 5! For that, I deeply apologize... So now, I would like to thank MexicanGamer, Dynamis, Meowth's Toon Dragon, 101101101, Galiega, cole smith, Martin Eder Yanez, LuckyJack, cabdriver andravenlover001, for their wonderful reviews. Your reviews kept me going on!

Alright, that's enough talking for now. Hope you enjoy these 2 chapters!

P.S. These 2 chapters aren't exempted from reviewing too, you know...

Epilogue 1: Sinister Development

The cigarette had already burned all the way to his fingers. The man tapped it impatiently on the against the ash bowl before finally leaving it there to smother. He then looked at the small, yet throbbing scald on his finger.

How could a person of such importance be so careless?

At that moment, his oh-so nervous and jumpy secretary came in. Joshua, was his secretary's name, and the man found both his name and personality to be rather annoying. Joshua wore a pair of glasses, and had short, straight hair, both of which came together to make him look like a nerd. And because he WAS a nerd, his clothes were of the typical kind – a shift with a funny stripped pattern, constantly tucked into a pair of business jeans.

The man lowered his hand slowly down to his pocket, not taking his eyes off of Joshua. This, in turn, made Joshua ten times more nervous.

"Yes, Joshua, what is it now…?" The man's words came out slow, yet it is seething with some sort of sinister under-layer.

Joshua repeatedly shifted his weight from one leg to the other. Every time he had to deliver a message to him, this had always happened. He ignored the crop of cold sweat sliding down his face and gave his report.

"S-Sir, the data you wanted h-has already been re-retrieved…" He stammered.

The man could practically die laughing after witnessing such a scene, but he maintained his composure. "Good, it's about time someone got something done around here!"

He got up from his chair and walked towards the door, brushing past Joshua and causing him to yelp softly. It seems that everyone around him now sees him as a frightening figure, constantly walking around in that black suit, making him look like Death itself.

He could have very well been. If he were to despise or hate someone, all he had to do was snap his fingers, and his opponent would be snapped into two almost instantly. That, was his power.

The man exited his office and walked down the corridor, receiving several nervous glances along the way. Joshua followed after him, his head hung low and his footsteps heavy, as if he was being lead to the execution site by the executioner himself. They passed by several rooms – other offices, laboratories, training facilities – that, until now, still disturbed Joshua greatly, especially the training facilities.

Why? Because the training facilities were not meant for them to use. They were used by the experimental creatures.

Joshua resisted the urge to look inside after hearing several roars and crashes, and raced after his so-called 'master', who had already walked on ahead. They finally reached their designation.

_Laboratory D-4, AUTHORISED PERSONEL ONLY!_

They stepped inside and were instantly greeted by a woman.

"Voxx! You're finally here!"

She wore the standard lab coat, with the exception of a blue-coloured collar, and had a nametag attached to her breast pocket. Joshua didn't need to look at it to remember her name.

Flair Matilda. Just like Voxx, she was also feared by everyone in the facility. As the top scientist and researcher in Umbrella, she was someone not to be messed with. If you so much as accidentally bump into her without apologizing, Flair could pump you full of chemicals you have never heard of in secret, watching you squirm and suffer, and still get away with it. Unlike everyone, she was impervious to Voxx's intimidation.

That's because she was Voxx's sister.

Together, they formed a frightening duo, leaving trails of suffering and destruction everywhere they walked. Anyone who got into their way, were usually declared missing after a few days, and found with their heads missing.

"So, Flair, what progress have you made?" Voxx asked, obviously excited.

"Much progress, come this way." Flair replied in a creepy, obsessed tone.

They walked over to a computer backed against a glass wall. As the two of them started going through the data on-screen, Joshua couldn't help but peek through the glass wall.

He regretted ever doing so.

Inside the massive compartment, pacing back and forth, was a hideous creature. Its body was supremely thin, and had spikes jutting out of its back, yet its four legs were strong enough to support its fragile body. At the end of each leg, were three sickening-looking claws that made an echoing sound against the metal floor as it walked. Its head resembled that of a bee, but the difference was that its eyes glowed a devilish red.

"Impressive, very impressive I must say…" Voxx repeated to himself, standing up straight and gazing into the compartment.

"Not only that, but Shadow," Flair pointed to the creature. "was able to gather some information on all our targets."

Voxx arched an eyebrow. "Really? So how's our little renegade team doing?"

"According to the data we retrieved from its core, Celine managed to make it out of Raccoon City alive. Furthermore, she's picked up a few more passengers along the way, one of them being a… well, you may be surprised to hear this, but one of them was a former Tyrant."

"Former Tyrant! How could that be possible?" Voxx asked, his voice rising.

"We're not entirely sure as we're still looking into the possibilities of that occurring."

"Well, at least that means more combat training for our friend here, am I right?" Voxx looked at his sister, the same madness flashing in their eyes.

"One hundred percent correct, brother…"

Voxx remembered dealing with Celine and her team for the past year, how he set Alyssa up and lured her into Raccoon City. It was shocking to know that she escaped alive, but Voxx knew she wasn't going to remain alive for long. After they sent in their new creation, Celine's life and that of her team, will become no more.

Celine's team had been giving them trouble for quite some time now. Launching childish sabotage missions and attempts to gather evidence of Umbrella's experiments, they simply couldn't go easy on them any longer. Funny how they always slipped right through Umbrella's grasp, but that, too, was Voxx's plan. To make them think that they're in control, that they're gaining the upper hand, so that they will lower their guard in overconfidence.

And that will be the moment the scorpion strikes. It was all part of war, nothing more.

They walked over to the 2nd glass compartment, where in it, stood a massive, hulking creature that Voxx easily recognized.

_Nemesis._

Even without its black trenchcoat, Nemesis still looked as lethal and dangerous as ever. The tentacles branching out from its back swayed in the air, while Nemesis itself simply stood there, transfixed onto the wall.

"So I see that Nemesis escaped the explosion too…" Voxx asked.

Flair put her hand up to her chin, rubbing it as she gave her reply. "Actually, he didn't. But we recovered a sample of his body among the debris, and used that to make a clone. Still as destructive, still as obedient."

Voxx nodded his head in approval. "That reminds me, what of the rebel S.T.A.R.S.?"

At this question, Flair hesitated, obviously troubled. "It was because of those S.T.A.R.S. that Nemesis got caught in the explosion. They, apparently, were able to defeat him."

Voxx merely stared at his sister for a few seconds, before banging his hand against the glass in anger. The sudden sound caused the tentacles on Nemesis' back to snap into life, zooming straight towards the source of the sound. It hit the reinforced glass with tremendous force, sending a slight pain through Voxx's hand. He glared at Flair, then at Nemesis.

"Those fucking S.T.A.R.S…." Voxx murmured to himself.

Then, an idea hit him. If the S.T.A.R.S. were too hard and elusive to be killed by such a creation, what with all their training and skills, how about sending Nemesis to deal with Celine and her team? They were not as skilled as S.T.A.R.S. members were, so Nemesis would make short work of them.

"Flair, change of plans…" Voxx said to her sister, and began laying out his brilliant idea to her.

After Voxx had finished, Flair's eyes lit up. "Why, yes! Brother, what a marvelous idea!"

Behind, all Joshua could do was remain silent, and watch as Shadow continued pacing back and forth, occasionally glancing towards him, sending cold shivers down his spine every time it did so.

It wasn't surprising that he started feeling pity for those who rebelled against Umbrella.

**X-------X-------X**


	13. Epilogue 2: Hearing the Faint Whisper

Epilogue 2: Hearing the Faint Whisper

It wasn't supposed to be like this. It never meant to be. Everything was supposed to be going according to plan once he had joined Celine's team.

That, however, was no longer a possibility.

Their objective was to take down Umbrella, put an end to their heartless experimentations, but because of a recent occurrence, that objective was going to have to wait.

Several more loud crashes came echoing out of the safe-room, ending with a blood-curling roar. Julian sat beside Andrew, who had a few nasty bruises on his arms and legs, while Celine tended to Desmond. The rest of her team were either frantically browsing through a computer, or attending to their own injuries.

Julian bent forward and rested his head on his hands, feeling a headache approaching. He recalled all that had happened, all that lead up to this disaster.

They arrived at the 'Headquarters' of the team at dawn, after a whole day of driving. The supposed 'Headquarters' was nothing more than a 2-storey house surrounded by trees and farmland. The open farmland would allow them to spot any intruders from far away, while the trees provided good cover should they have to sneak out at night in an emergency.

But it was more than your typical 2-storey house, the first difference being the small control panel embedded into the wall by the front door.

Briareos keyed in the passcode, and as soon as they stepped in, Julian's jaw dropped, and he could sense that Andrew and Desmond did the same.

From the outside, it looked like a normal shack. But on the inside, it was completely different. There weren't any colourful paintings or sweet-smelling vases. Instead, several tables lay here and there, most of which were occupied by either computers or an endless pile of papers. There was a small gun rack underneath what Julian guessed was the kitchen counter, filled with several light weapons like 9mms and Berettas.

It was a wonder how they could turn a normal house into something like this.

"Not very comfortable as you can see, but you'll get used to it!" Briareos turned towards the 'new recruits' and smiled. "Although finding a sleeping bag big enough for Leo is going to be hard…"

"Don't worry, I'll manage." Leo replied. He suddenly tensed his body and stifled what sounded like a growl.

"Hey, you alright?" Julian asked.

Leo rubbed the shoulder of his clawed arm. "Yeah, just a slight aching feeling, nothing to worry about."

It was amazing how they agreed to take them in, given their age and lack of skill (excluding Leo, of course). When Julian had mentioned, back in the van, that he wanted to join their team, both Briareos and Celine were speechless for an entire minute.

"Do you know what you're getting yourself into?" Celine had asked. "This isn't gonna be your classic field trip. You're better off living a normal life."

Julian lowered his head. "How can I lead a normal life now, knowing that my father died because of Umbrella…?"

They all fell silent. Julian listened to the constant humming of the engine, to the chirping of birds outside, trying to soothe his troubled soul. All to no avail, obviously.

"I…I'm sorry…" Celine stuttered.

"If I don't help to avenge my father, I'll never forgive myself…"

"But are you really sure about this?" It was Briareos' turn to ask. "There won't be any turning back once you've been blacklisted by Umbrella."

"Yes, I'm sure…" Julian then turned to his 2 friends. "I'm not going to ask you to accompany me, neither am I going to force you. If you want to, then go ahead."

His gaze remained on Andrew. He had not told Andrew about his father yet, and he didn't even know when or how to. Even though it was Andrew's father that was partially responsible for Steven's death, and completely responsible for Leo's transformation, Andrew still has the right to know what happened to his father.

But now is not the time. Not yet.

"Very well then. I'm not gonna say 'welcome to the team!', but I am going to warn you that it's going to be hard from now on." Celine explained.

"I'm ready for anything."

"Dude, you're really not planning on going alone are you?" Desmond said.

Julian turned and opened his mouth to answer, when he saw the look on Desmond's face. That oh-so familiar look of friendship and determination.

"We lost our own friends in this disaster as well." Andrew spoke up. "I don't know whether my father was a part of this, but Umbrella is still responsible nevertheless."

"Your…father?" Julian repeated, momentarily forgetting what he witnessed back at the compound.

"Hmm? What did you say?" Andrew inquired, leaning closer.

"No…nothing. Just talking to myself…"

And so, there they were, all cramped into the small and comfortable house, where they were formally introduced to the rest of Celine's resourceful team.

Briareos Caltine, the second-in-command of the team (with Celine as the leader). His size made Julian assume that he was the 'tank' of the team, throwing out the firepower while absorbing as much as he can to shield his team members. Linda Marlin, she was the medic of the team, and took care of hygiene and the supplies in the house. At a mere 22 years of age, Julian was impressed at her solid foundation in medicine and resilience, leaving himself to ponder whether to pursue a medical career or not. Next, was Hunter Lorenz. He served as a backup to Briareos, and ensured that all their weapons were in working condition. 36 years old, he was less built than Briareos, though he looked like he could run much faster than any of them. Last was Melinda Traydor. She served as the scout of the team, gathering information from sources that she herself miraculously conjured out of thin air. She had short, curly, brown hair, and a typical woman's body, the same as Linda, though Melinda was slightly taller.

The introductions kicked off a laughter-filled lifestyle, one which Julian had not experienced for many years. Most of the troubles he received from the Raccoon City incident were washed away in the days of laughter that followed, as well as the sessions of training where he was taught the basic skills of handling guns. Julian wasn't a fast learner, but if something was of importance, he would strive to master it as soon as possible.

After all, they were talking about going against a multi-billion dollar company such as Umbrella. How can 'handling guns properly' not be considered important?

All that was then. Now was the beginning of a new hell.

In the middle of the night, Julian had awoken to a scream. It took him five seconds to realize that Desmond was the one screaming, his frightened voice ringing throughout the house. At first, he thought that Desmond was only having a nightmare, but his screams were cut short. What Julian heard next chilled him to the bone – a deep, fierce growling.

And the fact that they were all in the same room, put Julian on high alert.

He slowly got out of bed, fearing the worst, hearing Andrew also doing the same. Several thumps were heard from upstairs, meaning that everyone else had already awoken to the screaming. In the moonlight leaking in from a small window, a large figure stood over Desmond's limp body. It was Leo, undoubtedly. Something was dripping from the end of his clawed arm.

Blood.

_No…No way…_

This was what Julian had been fearing the most for the past few weeks.

Andrew's faint whisper came floating to his ears. "What the… Julian, what is-"

"_Shhhhh!_"

It was too late. At the sound of their voices, Leo turned around, his eyes glowing a distinct red, focusing in on Julian. He began running to the other side of the room, but was too slow as he felt a huge force slam into his side, throwing him well off his feet. Julian crashed into the wall head first, knocking the daylights out of himself and causing his vision to blurr. He heard Andrew picking something up and smashing it down on Leo, only to receive a tight slap from Leo's clawed arm. Andrew stumbled and crashed into the table, tipping everything over, including himself.

The door flew open, and there stood Celine and Briareos, guns aiming directly at Leo.

"NO! Don't shoot! Just get Desmond out n- GAH!" Julian yelled as he felt the sharp claws slicing across his right leg when he tried to roll away.

The two didn't hesitate. They dashed in and picked Desmond's body up, his clothes already stained a deep red where Leo had slashed him. Andrew stumbled out of the room after them, leaving Briareos in the room along with Julian and Leo.

"Julian, it's your turn. Out, NOW!"

Briareos grabbed a bed sheet, sneaked up behind Leo, and threw it over his head. He then delivered a kick to Leo's back, knocking him down. Despite the pain in his leg, Julian got up and ran as fast as he could for the door, with Briareos following closely behind. Once they were out of the room, Briareos slammed the door shut, and Julian could hear the locks clicking into place.

Thank goodness they were sleeping in the safe room.

Several hours have passed. Desmond had a nasty gash in his left side, which Celine was working desperately to stitch up. Other than that, they were mostly alright.

"Hey…Hey I think I found something!" Linda called out, her glasses reflecting the brightness of the computer screen.

"What? What?" Hunter beckoned, walking over to her desk.

Linda scanned the screen for a few seconds before looking up again. "I managed to hack into one of their Umbrella websites, and found out that they're working on some kind of anti-virus."

"According to this," Linda looked back at the screen. "this anti-virus can supposedly reverse the effects of the T-Virus entirely, and that makes it completely different than the standard anti-virus, which only wipes out the virus currently within the host."

" 'Supposedly'?" Briareos raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I know what it sounds like, but the project began some 20 years ago, which means…"

"That there is a chance that the cure is nearing completion…" Julian said, slowly.

"Correct… According to reports here, most of the tests they conducted with this anti-virus were successful." Linda read out.

"But why would they want to come up with a cure to the very virus they themselves developed to create super-soldiers?" Hunter asked, rubbing his chin.

"Who knows..." Briareos casually said. "Probably to make up for their accidents, or reduce the damage of failed experiements."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go…" Julian said, and stood up. A sharp pain shot through his leg, and he remembered that he had not yet bandaged up his wound.

Briareos put both his hands up in a 'stop' manner. "Woah woah, hold it right there. We're talking about infiltrating one of their heavily guarded laboratories here…"

Julian didn't have to listen to this. They clearly had no other choice. And as more crashes sounded from the safe room, as they all threw their tired glances at him, as images of what might happen should they fail flashed through his mind, he said, with determination.

"The decision's final. We're getting that anti-virus…"

**X-------X-------X**

A/N: Sadly, we have now come to the end of this fanfic... TT But fret not, for this is not the last you have seen of Wongster! I would like to thankeveryone who took the time to read my fanfic, reviewers and non-reviewers alike!

As I had mentioned before somewhere in the past chapters, I'm planning to make this into a trilogy. BUT I'm gonna take a break from Resident Evil for a while, as I am also planning on writing a fic for Silent Hill.

So be sure to look out for my next fanfic on Silent Hill!


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